A Mother Taken From a Spree: Seattle's Temperance Crusade Fixes on One Family
A well-dressed mother of three is found drunk and taken to the city station to recover — and the Post-Intelligencer turns her private ruin into a sermon on marriage, appetite and the duty of the state.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
On Wednesday of last week there came to the notice of the police of this city a particularly sad case of intemperance, an account of which was given in our news columns on Thursday. A woman who was well dressed and gave evidence of having been possessed of more than ordinary culture and refinement was taken to the police station that she might recover from what was evidently the effects of a prolonged spree. She had with her three children, aged 4, 5 and 2 years.
There is nothing in modern society that appeals so strongly to one's sympathy as a mother so addicted to intemperance as to make such a spectacle of her depravity as was made by this woman, especially as it is claimed to have sprung from domestic infelicity.
In cases where intemperance has reached such a stage in woman the remedy is perhaps medical rather than moral, but it will not be denied that all intemperance has its beginning in moral enervation. The distinctive feature in man is that he is rational as well as animal; and, while his appetites are ever subject to their gratification, his rationality has in it an inherent excellence and dignity that make him a moral sovereign.
What is especially sad in the case to which we have referred is that the cause of this deplorable condition of a mother is attributed to trouble in the family. When a wife and mother, whose moral nature is naturally stronger than man's, or at least exposed to less danger, becomes through domestic trouble a victim to habitual drunkenness, the evil influences that lead to such a condition must be great indeed. Such influence, if it became widespread, would greatly derange, if not destroy, society; and it is to be hoped that the law will ultimately be made flexible enough to reach such cases, as it is cheaper to prevent depravity than to care for the depraved. The state has indeed an interest in the family, as marriage is a public institution. Especially has it an interest in the children; for, since the sovereignty of our government is in the people, its very perpetuity will depend upon the intelligence and morality of the coming generation.
“There is nothing in modern society that appeals so strongly to one's sympathy as a mother so addicted to intemperance as to make such a spectacle of her depravity.”
More than a century later we still argue over whether addiction is a moral failing or a public-health crisis, and whether the state should punish or protect a parent in distress. Substitute 'domestic trouble' for the language of trauma and the debate the Post-Intelligencer opened on this page looks uncomfortably familiar.
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