Alcohol: a Funny Medicine p2

Abstract

This shows a typical mix of material presented to young readers in Onward, April 1902: the end of an article on the life of the British soldier is followed by a compilation of amusing anecdotes about alcohol, and then a poem by the religious author Mary Alicia Steward, who had published ‘ Sketches of Bible child life’ in 1896.

Answer by The Lancet: “As an agent for producing degeneration alcohol is unrivalled.”
Mr. N.: “I have a weak heart, that is my reason.”
Dr. Sims Woodhead: “I never use brandy for the heart; hot milk is better.”
Mr. O.: “I have a complication of complaints, I am forced to take it.”
Answer by Dr. Dickson, Canada: “Alcohol is a most destructive agent to every organ and tissue of the body, either in an a state of health or disease.”

Well, we won’t go on to the end of the alphabet, but we might go on to the end of twelve alphabets to show how useless alcohol is, and what an absurd thing it is to believe it to be a good medicine. Surely everybody who wants to know the truth will be satisfied with this: Now the next think to do is to live it out.
-Irish Temperance League Journal.

April.
By Mary Alicia Steward.

A wealth of bloom on cherry boughs,
A blush of red on peach-blow tips,
A thrill of life in fresh oak leaves,-
For spring has come.

The ripple of a sunny brook,
A dash of sudden waterfall,
A bit of rain, a bit of sun,
Now spring has come.

A glad song trilled from robin’s throat,
A soft sweet murmur of content,
That steals from new-made swallow’s nest,
For spring has come.

All nature voices hallowed praise
To Him whose will all things obey,
And God looks down again and smiles,
That spring has come.