What Temperance Can Do

In Mrs. Oall'sbook on Ireland oeeurs the following passagp, whieh a person will hardly read without emotion ! "We enterecl one day a coitage in the suburbs of Cork ; a young woinan was kniitingstockings at the door. It was as neat and cornfortable as any n the most prosperous district of England. We teil her brief story in her owii words, as nearly as we can recall them : 'My husband is a wheelwriglit, and always enrned his guinea a week ; he was a good workman, but the love for the drink was strong in him, and it was'nt ofien he brought me home more ihan five sl.illings out of his ovvn pound on a Saturday night, and it broke my heart to see the children too ragged to send to school, to say nolliing of the starved look thcy had out of the little I could give them. Wel], God be praised, he took ilie pledge, and ihe next Saturday he laid tvventy-onc shilüngson the chnir yon sil upon. O! did'nt I give thanks upon rny bended knees that night ; slill I was feariul it would'nt last, saying to myself, mny be the tnoney will be more wanted than it is now. Well, the next week he brought me iho same, and the nexi, and the next, unlil eight weeks had pnssed ; and, glory to God ! there was no cliangefor the bad in my husband ; and all the while he never askod me why there was nothing betler for him out of his earnings ; so 1 feit there was no fear for birn. and the ninth week, when he carne home to me, I had this table bought, and these six chairs, one for myself, fcur for the children, and one for himself ; ar.d I was dressed in a new gown, and the children all haJ new cJothes and shoes and stockings, and upon his chaij I put a bran new suit, and npon his platel put the bill and receipt for Ihcm all, just the eiglit sixteen shillings. the cost that I'd saved out of his wages, nat knowing what tniglit happen, and that ahvays went for drink. And he cried, good lady and good gentleman, he cried Iike a baby, but l'was wilh tlianks to God ; and now wheie's the healthier man than my husband in the whole county of Cork, ora hnppier wife than myself, ordecenter or better fed children than our own ?"