to go is in the country, where
the youth wear

THE BADGE OF TEMPERANCE

in their cheeks--not in the button-hole of their coats. In the country,
surrounded by circles of persons as free from stimulants or the need of
them as is their snow from the smut of soft-coal, they swear eternal
"conversion" to the views of a man--usually a former victim of
intoxication,--often a subsequent wallower in his same old gutters.
Society sometimes looks upon this Peter the Hermit with little pleasure.
The excitements, the passions and the commotions which he sometimes
foments are pitiable from the very fact that

NO RUM CAN BE BLAMED

as having fired the unhappy brains that rush into the vortex of public
confusion, like ships into the whirlpool. All the practical laws would
be passed (and at a date earlier than that at which the public finally
accept them in reality) without the sacrifices of the man who proudly
calls himself a "horrible example" of the power of strong drink. How
does Society do it? I am sure I do not know. All I know is this:

ON THE REAL BATTLE-GROUND,

in the city, where stimulant is often needed--whisky, iron, quinine,
coffee, tobacco, opium, or tea--the men who waste the most nerve-tissue
are more rigidly required to abstain from the abuse of stimulants than
was the case fifteen years ago. To put it plainer, fifteen years ago, a
smart man would be employed on a newspaper to "write" or "report". If he
were brilliant, he was entitled almost by custom to "go on the war-path"
once a week--that is, to be drunk that often, and to be totally unable
or unwilling to do the current day's work.

NOW-A-DAYS,

if a man in the same position were to get drunk once a year he would be
superseded. No matter how brilliant he may be, the drunkard at once
sinks to the bottom. The "fat jobs" are filled by men as steady as
clock-work. How has Society done this wonderful thing? Hard to tell. She
has constantly tempted the steady man. In fact, she inclines to treat
him a shade the better if he can drink some stimulant each day without
unbalancing himself--some alcohol, some coffee or some tea--but

WOE TO HIM

if he transgress her limits. In the country it is asked "Does he drink?"
In the city it is asked "Does he get drunk?" The two methods are
essentially the results of two conditions. The mistake of the one
locality is to apply its own preliminary to the other. Now, again, to
this frightful question of woman-tortur