ature
ought to be fought by those of light alcoholic effect. The whiskey of
the laborers must be fought by light healthy beer and perhaps by light
American wines. Further, a systematic education in self-control must
set in; the drunkard must not be tolerated under any circumstances.
Above all, the social habits in the sphere of drinking must be
entirely reshaped. They belong to a period where the Puritan spirit
considered beer and wine as sinful and relegated them to regions
hidden from decent eyes. The American saloon is the most disgusting
product of such narrowness; its dangers for politics and law, health
and economics, are alarming. The saloon must disappear and can be made
to disappear perhaps by higher license taxation and many other means.
And with it must disappear the bar and the habit of drinking standing
and of mutual treating. The restaurant alone, with the hotel and the
club, is the fit public place where guests sitting at tables may have
beer and wine with their meals or after meals,--and all controlled by
laws which absolutely forbid the sale of intoxicants to certain groups
of persons, to children, to inebriates, and so on. As long as drinking
means to the imagination of a considerable well-meaning minority of
the nation the present-day repulsive life of saloons and bars, the
minority will find it easy to terrorize and to whip into line the
whole country. But if those relics of a narrow time disappear and
customs grow which spread the spirit of geniality and friendly social
intercourse over the foaming cup, the spell will be broken. Instead of
being tyrannized over by short-sighted fanatics on the one side and
corrupt saloon-keepers on the other, the nation will proceed with the
unanimous sympathy of the best citizens to firm temperance laws which
the sound instinct of the masses will really respect. Training in
self-control as against recklessness, training in harmless hilarity
and social enjoyment as against mere vulgar excitement and rag-time
pleasures, training in respect for law as against living under
hysterical rules which cannot be executed and which invite blackmail,
corruption, and habitual disregard of laws--these are indeed the most
needed influences on the social mind of the country.

THE MOVING FINGER WRITES

BY MARIE BELLOC LOWNDES

I

"... _and having writ,
Moves on; nor all your Piety nor Wit
Can lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears