his country in honor of another lawyer of distinction, and
among those present was a young man of promise who at that time was
considerably in the public eye.

The dinner began with a cocktail, and the young man was the only one
of the brilliant company who did not drink it. He was not ostentatious
in his refusal, but merely lifted the glass to his lips and then set
it down with the others. Nor did he take any wine throughout the
dinner. The incident was noticed by only a few, and those few chanced
to meet at a club the next day. The young man was the topic of their
conversation.

"Well," said the great lawyer, "a young man who has enough
self-restraint to deny himself as that young man did, and who at the
same time is so scintillating in speech, so genuine and original in
thought, and so charming in manner, has in him simply tremendous
possibilities. I have not been so impressed in a long time as I was by
his refraining from drinking."

This incident is related simply to show that a young man loses nothing
in the esteem of those who themselves drink by declining to join them.

I repeat, this is no temperance lecture. I know perfectly well that
some of the strongest men in business and politics and literary life
in this country take wine occasionally at the dinner-table and
elsewhere. Nor are they to be condemned for it. But this paper is
meant to contain vital suggestions to _young men_ with life's
possibilities and difficulties before them.

It is so entirely uncertain whether you have the will in you to keep
your hands very firmly on the reins of the wild horses of habit. It is
so utterly unknown to you whether you may not have inherited from an
ancestor, even very remote, an inflammable blood which, once touched
by stimulant, is ever after on fire.

You risk too much, and you risk it needlessly. My earnest advice is
not to try it. I will leave to the doctors the description of its
effect on nerve and brain, and to common observation the universal
testimony to the peculiar blurring of judgment which stimulant of any
kind usually produces. Besides, it is a very bad thing for a young man
to get a reputation for.

I have concluded, after very careful observation, that there is a
mighty change being wrought in this habit, and that a great majority
of the young men who are now the masters of affairs are abstainers. In
short, drinking will soon be out of style, and very bad form.

Consider these illustrations: I