How to Raise a Drunkard

It all starts with indulgent mothers

This illustration is from The Temperance Program (1915), a book edited by Thomas F. Hubbard - an evangelist and a leader of the temperance movement in the United States. The book includes a section entitled: How To Make A Drunkard - which shows how a mother’s permissive attitude could doom her son to a life of alcoholism and misery …

If you would make of Willie boy a drunkard low and vile,
Just let him piece between the meals, and every little while;
And when he to the table comes, with stomach tired and sore,
You scold and fret and urge and plead for Willie to eat more.
Be sure to tempt his appetite with jelly, cake and pie …

But now, to help the trouble on and have your conscience free,
Just try and do your level best to have him drink some tea,
And also drink some coffee strong to stimulate his nerves;
Then if an invalid he makes, don't blame the one who serves.
For if such food and poison drink into his stomach goes,
If he's not dead by twenty-one, you've failed, so I suppose.

But if you fail now, mother dear, to put him in the grave,
Do all you can to have your boy become a drunken knave:
Get father dear to help you out, whatever you may do,
And let dear Willie learn from Pa just how to smoke and chew.
Tobacco, then, he'll learn to like, and parch his lips and throat;
His thrist he'll quench with liquor quaffs, and be a whisky bloat.

So tea and coffee he must have, and in tobacco steep;
From these and much rich pastries, he'll soon a harvest reap.
Poor Willie dies before his time, before his proper season,
Then, mother dear, you wonder why? and what can be the reason?
You'll feed him pickles, pork and pie, yet stand in self-defense,
And when your boy then has to die, throw blame on Providence.

The book reflected the moral and religious views of the temperance movement, which opposed not only alcohol, but also other substances and habits that were seen as stimulating, addictive, or harmful, such as tobacco, coffee, tea, soda, candy, pastries, pickles, pork, and gambling. The book aimed to persuade its readers to adopt a sober and virtuous lifestyle, and to join the crusade against the liquor industry and its supporters. The movement led to the ratification of the 18th Amendment in 1919.

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For more on the history of alcohol and temperance see:

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Source: The Temperance Program

Author: Thomas F. Hubbard

Published: Galesburg, Ill., Wagoner Printing Co., 1915

Archived: HathiTrust

Featured image - detail from: The Drunkard's Progress (1826) ~ Library of Congress