Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, December 11, 1915, Page 18

Power of Will to Subdue Alcoholism Many Men Who Have Redeemed Selves Have || Proved that Practically || Every Victim Can Es- cape from Curse. : : || By DR. CHARLES H. PARKHURST To any readers of this page of The Bee who may chance to be victims of the alcoholic habit 1 want to address half a_dozen paragraphs in regard to the will *hd in regard to the will power consid- ered as means of changing one’s life and its habits. The will is a faculty that no | one can exactly describe, except that it | is tremendously effective it we will let it | work. If a man is a drunkard and does | not want to give up drinking then he won't. But if he is a drunkard and does want to give up drinking then he can There is much said about alcoholism being a diseass, and there is truth in that way of putting the matter. But be- cause it works disease in the body ft does not follow that it crushes the power of the will, and it is the will that is going to settle the matter, or that can' settle the matter If we will let it There are too many cases that we all know or have read of where will has successfully crushed the drinking habit to leave room for supposing that it has not the power to do so. The trouble is not with the will, but with the failure to use fit. I was talking a few days ago with a man whom 1 had been observing with some interest, and he told me his story. He seemed to be nothing out of the ordi- nary, and yet had the appearance of being a stralght sort of fellow and | abounding in health and good spirits. It seems that from the age of about 18 untfl he was over 30 he drank hard and pretty steadily. He reduced himself to extreme verty and was refused a cup of coffee ecause he ocould mot pay for it. ‘That experience gave him a sudden sense of degradation and he said to him- self abruptly: “I am done with drink.” And he was. When he told me his story he must have been . In the meantime he told me he had not tasted a drop. His face and general bearing indicated as much. He was telling the truth. All those twelve years of whisky he had had a will as good as anybody’s, but had not used it Another case that I was once very familiar with was that ef a younger man who during most of the time for thirty years was soaked with liquor. His N debauches were fearful, sometimes con- h tinuing for days. He considered his own condition hopeless. It was recognized by his friends that his will was conquered | and that he was sunk into & condition of slavery from which there was' ho! emancipation. And yet his case had this peculiar feature. He was acoustomed each year to | spend four or five months in the coun- try. The people of the country town had no knowledge of his habits. While there he lived the life of a total abstainer. He | declaimed eloquently against the drink | habit; was active in closing saloons. The | pride he took in being held in good repute helped to keep him up. But immediately he returned to his winter home, where he was known as a drunkard, he cGi- lopsed and celebrated his return with & debauch, There was nothing the matter with his v will. He oould have controlled himself 1 he had wanted to, These people should < not be babled and pitied because they | are helpless. They are not helpless. They had rather drink than exercise the power, the will-power, that God gave them and which it is wicked to disuse. If many of those that have been the worst inebriates had not shown that they oould stand erect and get the best of the habit, when they choose to, we might not speak so confidently. But as it is, such cases disprove the Wwhole theory of helplessness. For the purpose of illustrating what a | tremendous thing the will is, and what it can accomplish against the most ad- ' verse circumstances, I want to relate & story which may be some encourage ment to whisky victims, although it b nothing to do with whiskey, There is a fascinating little book, by the late Wil- llamw C. Prime, eatitled, “Among the Northern Hills.” Mr. Prime was a great lover of New Bngland and, as a man fond of the line and the fly, he had made himself famillar with ull the trout brooks of the region and with the house- holders that lived along their borders. In this way he picked up no end of incidents, some of them funny, some ot them pathetic, but all exceedingly read- able. Among others was one that had to do with an old lady and her son. She not \ly lived in New England, but was full of the New England spirit, and that spirit included, among other things, & will that was solid as adamant and as forceful as a catapult. It should be| premised that as to her son, she was not | fond of him, the reason for which the story does not explain. She lived upon & large farm and was in control of its affairs and supposed that the farm was her own. She had| been mistress of it for so long a timo (hat, a misunderstanding in regard to | She kept her nh;’: tat and "’““’ 4 fi,"‘; I there seems to be no place for you| actual legal ownership could easily have | put him throug! ‘ ;ruv\nryr 8¢ ,..K a .l. W o dienrid gl vy, o ot arisen. The tme came, however, for the |high school and college by some mIFACS |\, oy, out to life any affection? The| old lady to die; at least her condition |of financing, and she had her reward) . ", ypom 1 speak looks upon men | ( pointed very manifestly in that direction. |in seeing her son grow up into a splen- | -0 ravening wild beasts, Her attitude The change came upon her suddenly. | ®d young man, who repaid her affection | (1 TSN CE L O e of extstence 1| The doctor came post haste and the!in Kind, for the mother and son Were | . o' s cuucism. She sees nothing any- awyer followed in his wake, having been | chums and companions | Where to iika or admire or approve. summoned for testamentary purposes. | The young man went out into the ! 1o .10 meets some one who is kind and Isquire,” she said, “T am going to die |world to seek his fortune. He &0t & [ynseirish she yersiats in regurding that and I want to make my will, disposing of | position in & thriving manufactory, 'n |person as & strange exception to the this farm."” {whigh he made good, and after & bit (general r Within herself she has adame,” he replied. “the farm is he was given an opportunity to buy |created a world that does mot know not yours. You have simply held it in|some stock in it. ‘To enable him to do |kindness or love or unselfishness. And | trust under terms of & will that requires | this the mother soid the little house that | having created that world she lives in it | i that on your decease it should pass into she had protected with her very heart "}”.\'{.'"“ trying to give anything of help or 4 hands of your son." | blood and gave him the money to invest | faith. squire, do you mean that f I dle|in it 1t was her =il the pittance that| FHhe !»t_rrllfllfll::’ "":I’:rlfm:“::;:-:ffl;; this property is going to belong to my|stood between her and the ‘li;-vlh"fll»", :‘v“m ‘;::‘!:““: By gy ok % MRy but she gave him her money s freely | L "o "riend whom she snows she : l Curthinly,” 284 the Moy {as she had given him her life |can trust, one friend who is loyal and | « Wol, TR BNE she, ‘% . e overything prospered. The investment |, ., " ne friend for whom she feels | 4, golng to die proved & good one. The son was Kind | o oion and in whom she can place Whereupon she gathered herself up, |and attentive to his mother, and It |o .., I strode across the room, got well and |seemea that she was going to be re-| i ,.ver gocurs to her morbid litde | ! lived for fifteen years, surviving her son | warded for all of her sacrifices. Then |.oul that she owes something to that by four years. That is what the human |the inevitable woman came into the son's | friendship, that because momeone worth R will means when it is used and not dia- | life. while _ares for her she bas even at the | to v wrded, fHE BEE: OMAHA, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1915 When Santa Claus Forgets! 1915, Intern’l News Copyright, N NN Service. N\ N\ /f Y ) " The Bees Home Magazine Dage Drawn for The Bee by Windsor Mckay Santa Claus is not careless, but he is awfully busy and is likely to forget some folks who really should not be overlooked, It is on behalf of these The Bee is making its appeal for the deserving poor whose cases have been suggested by Mrs. Doane of the Associated well given, and The Bee is in favor of them all. Charities. they are specific instances of where practical assistance is actually needed. How a Jealous Wife Robbed Husband’s Mother But any contribution to a fund for the help of those who otherwise will have no Christmas is money It advocates the particular cases that it has mentioned to its readers because By DOROTHY DIX Do you remember that story of Henry's in which he tells of the man who dreamed that he died and went up before the Great Judge to receive his sentence? Just as he was about to he given a through ticket to Gehenna he observed that he was being sent down with & bunch of fat, prosperous looking devils, and he inquired who they were. “Why,” replied the Recording Angel, “they are the men who hired working girls and pald them $ or ¥ a week to live on. Do you belong with them?" “Not on your immortality,” cried out the Lost Soul, “I'm only the fellow that set fire to an orphan asylum and mur- dered a blind man for his pennfes!"” A good story, that. It gives you some-~ thing to think about. There are crimes committed by perfectly respectable, smug, complacent people that make you feel that you would rather take your place with thugs and murderers on the judgment day than with them. For in- stance, listen to this little episode from real life, which I assure you is absolutely true, every word of it: About thirty years ago a man dled, leaving & very young wife and a little boy baby only 4 months old paid for the little home in tne small town in which they lived, but that was all that he left to his widow and his son. People wondered how they would get along. They said that she could sell the house for $3,000 or $4,0w, and that would keep them for a while, but after that was gone heaven knew how they would live. But the little widow did not sell her home. She was a simple, domestic woman who had never been trained to any trade and had little education, but she had the inspiration that comes from a great love and an absorbing purpose, so she rolled up her sleeves and went to work. She took in sewing—plain sewing, that pays a beggarly wage in rural communi- ties. She baked cakes and sold them She went out sick-nursing. She sold vegetables out of her garden. She stewed |over a hot stove all summer putting up preserves for other people. She worked eighteen hours & day at anything and everything that would earn & penny. She denied herself everything except the bare sustenance that would keep soul and body together. She kept her little home for her child. ©Oh, no. She wasn't & bad woman with | He had | The son didnt He be- a dark and lurid past fall into the toils of any siren. i 1 came engaged to a perfectly respectable woman, in a perfectly respectable way, | and they were married and had a beau- titul church wedding. For the bride was | & religious young person much given to | social service work and convinced that | she had a mission to uplift the world. | But she was jealous or the poor old mother. She resented her husband's af- | keep a car if John didn't have to support | | | | | | fection for his mother and his considera- | | tion for her. that She felt that every penny he gave his mother was robbing her just that much. on earth for the unfortunate old woman, and at last forced her to leave her son's roof, lives in a boarding house now, a forlorn old creature, with nothing to do and nowhere to go, be- cause her life had been bound up in her son 50 long that she has no separate existence. Her son even visits her by stealth, so afraid is he of his wife, and | she speaks of the “burden” that thelr mother-in-law is to them, They could | | l The old women | { | | i “So long as we love we serve; 50 long as we are loved by some one, I would almost say that we are indispen- sable; and man is useless while he has a friend.”"—Robert Louis Stevenson. [ t By BEATRICE FAIRFAX. no “There isn't any place for me in life. | Nobody wants me,” a sad lttle girl I | know sighs over and over, To her mere |living is & desperate burden | 1s hardly willing to carry. To her and |all the other morbid souls who cannot | find a place for themselves in the scheme | of existence 1 want to talk today. | "So long as we love we serve, and | | the beloved “R. L. 8." whose own han- dicap of desperate ill health did not pre- vent him from leaving the world books which are a veritable anthology of cheer- fulness. She made life a hell | Qur Worth in the World that she his mother. Bhe has even taught her little children | to look with contempt upon thelr grand- mother. And she justifies her conduct by eaying that the old must give way to the young. It is the law of nature, she says, and the old mother accepts it with. out question, because she is mother to the last, and willing to efface herself it it will make things easler for her boy. That Is the story of & woman who has deliberately separated a mother from her son, robbed years of sacrifice of their just reward and broken an old woman's heart. | The old woman told me this story very simply, her sunken mouth working pite- ously, and as I looked at her work- | knotted hands and bent, old shoulders and thought of all that she had endured, I remembered O. Henry's story ,and I, thought that at the judgment day 1/ would rather cast in my lot with the out- casts than with those daughters-in-law who have turned their husbands' old mothers out of doors or come between a mother and her son. place in life, and that she is of use to the world, In fact and in potentiality, be- cause she has the friendship of a fine and admirable soul. Every human being has a definite place in the scheme of things. It may be tiny for always, but at least it Is a place; no one else can fill it, and the individual who is to put into it Is a link In a chain Just belng alive carries with it a cer- tain responsibility. How does any of us know that any other human veing can do the work we find to hand? How does any of us know that anyone else can do the work we shirk in the mere fact that we fail to look for 1t? None of us can look ahead so much as an hour; none of us knows what tomor- row will bring. It is possible that just by being at @ given place at @ certain time we may prqve of inestimable value in the scheme of things—but more than this we all owe to lfe a state of “pre- | paredness.” To educate yourself so that you may be of service to the world In | weneral and of velue to those who care for you is a part of your duty Even though you feel friendless and | unnecessary in the scheme of things you have no guarantee that the state of af fairs is going to last In a world of change. How then dare you throw away your chance to make ready to be of value to life? Belng of service to the world is in It- self valuable. It is the responsibility of life. No one has a right to sit around and think how miserable and lonely and unhappy and abused he or she is with- out recognising the fact that there are plenty of people in like state. And if they are, any one who can think must figure out her responsibility to help; other unhappy souls. | Life lsn't & thing to run away from;!| it is & thing to meet with outstretched | hands of service, Into those hands| tasks sball be put and in the fulfilling of them lies more than mere usefulness to life—duty, to yourself and a chance make & place for yourself in the moment of her greatest unhappiness a | world. At the Rexall Drug Stores You’re Sure of Getting What You Want Largest stocks of the world’s best-known and most popular Drugs, Medicines, Toilet Preparations and Sundries make it certain that you will find what you want here. Buying in tremendous quantities—and always keeping quality at the highest—enables these stores to offer values that give your money the greatest purchasing power. The prices tell the story. " IMPORTED Our_store is the place to PERFUMES find the choicest selection of Perfumes—the kind you are sure about. Coty L'Orlgan Bx- tract, bottle , Coty’ Muguet - tract, bottle «.... Coty Jacqueminot ox Pourpe Eau de Tollette, per bottle. Crown Perfumery Co., London, Crab- apple Extract, per bottle, 76¢ and .... Houbigant' Parln, Ideal Perfume, in 215-0n. cut glas bottles .,.... . Houbigant's Coeur le Jeannette, per oz Kerkoff, Pars, Dier Kiss Extrac $1.50, $2.50 and . Saturday in OUR CIGAR DEPT. 10¢ for 10¢ Cubanolds, 4 for 15¢ Reynaldo G 0808, each ... ... Box of ten 15c qualit foll wrapped Mani Clgars for ,....,.. 50 Henry George ; s for " .. 8165 Sc_Reynaldos, 10¢ Box of 50 Little 3 for . e Toms for ... $1.65 $3.00 | $2.50 $4.75 $1.25 $4.90 $2.00 Be f 50 0ODO-RO-NO Dalaty Tollet Liguid fot o, e, oo ana. $1 $1.00 Kerkoff ‘Tollet Water, per bottle., Roger & Galle Cholcest Extrac in 1 and 2-0z_bot- tles, each, at $1.00, $1.35 and Atkinson, Lon White Rose tract, os. . ‘e Maubert's ' Fouge- rie Imperlale, oz.. Bouquet Laure or OB, ... tigaud's | Garden | ger om o Rigaud’s $2.00 7b¢ $1.50 $1.00 $2.00 $2.00 Mary Extract, Violet Oriza, bottle. CHOICE FRESH CANDIES 1-1b. box Triola Sweets for .. . 1-1b. box Galvin's Ripe Pineapple Chocolates 1-1b, box Guth's De Luxe Caramels for Liggett's Elect Chocc lates (every containing - fruit or nougat cen- ter), b ... . 80c Dutch . 39c 39¢ . 39¢ Dainty De- lights, %-Ib. 1 1b. Liggett's Butter and Milk Bittersweet, per 1-1b, 5 1 1b. . Liggett's Fruit Cordias Chocolates, % 1b, 1 b, . We nell the ( Barr's ) Cand: Saturd original “Saturday RUBBER GOODS We buy our Rubber Goods direct from factories and can guarantee same to be in prime condition. Nearly 1,000 articles in the Rubber Goods line. We have skilled salesmen and salesladies and fitters In our Rubber Goods, Truss and Shoul- der Brace Department. Some of them have done this work for us for 12 to 156 year: 35¢ Yellow box Prophy- g Ge ... 100 o $1.50 | DRUG STORE GOODS 26c Alcock's Porous Plasters ..... Bromo Seltser, 190, %0 and 26c Carter’ Liver Pills 800 Caldwell Pepain 50c Doan Plils Father Johr Medicin Fellows $1.26 Gude's Pepto Mangan' s . opte -, 980 26e Hil's Cascara Quinine Horlick's M 880 and .. $1.00 Hyomel, complete » Kidney Syrup Palmolive or Jap Hose Soap, Satur. day, per oake ....., 6 TOILET GOODS Prices for Saturday b0c Pompelan Massage LTrmnsan Masmhe 890 50c bottle Bay Rum .. 6 cakes Ivory Py 26c Sanitol Toot Powder ........ 50c Malvina Qream A . 29¢ 60c Java Rl 29¢ der for B0c Ricksecker's Cold Sham e, 4. 29¢ 50c Melba Cold Creams ol o oo Mo T” ' ‘“'001 lec 140 Pow- Listerine, 180, 190, 360 Mennen's Taloum (4 shades), for ....... m Mentholatum (genuine) ¢ Packer's Tar Soap ... creeease $1.00 Pinkham's Compound 50c Pebeco Tooth Paste Sal Hepatie ise, .fip-mfl‘.‘. tenes 50c Figs 50c Scott’'s Emul. sion .. 26c Tiz, for tender foet ... PURE DRUGS, Fresh l'nvrlvlern or Sdlphur, e Actd, 100 Blaud's Iron Tonlc' Tablets . 29¢ 2 domen Asperin Tab- lots or Capsules for .. 100 Shinols, Saturdey fg This Atomizer $1.00—An atomizer that does not work The isn’t worth anything. one like this cut is simple in mechanism and doesn’t get out of repair easily. We sell dozens of kinds for med- icine and per- fumes; s3 86e to.... Sherman & McConnell's 4——Rexall Drug Stores—4