y not poor
men, too?" he added.

And I sez, "Grantin' that rich men do drink and carouse at their
clubs, as I don't know whether they do or not, two wrongs never made
one right, and the liquor couldn't hurt 'em so much, for they can buy
it pure, and the poor man's drink is pizen by adulteration, makin' a
more dangerous drunk, ruinin' their health and makin' 'em spilin' for
fights and bloodshed. The rich man can stay all night at his club, or
if he goes home the decorous butler or vally can tend to him and
protect his family if need be; he won't stagger in at midnight to a
comfortless room, where his wife and little ones are herded in cold
and starvation and are alone and at his mercy, and the rich man's
carouse at his club won't keep his wife and children hungry for a
week."

Bein' driv out of that position Elder Wessel tried a new tact: "The
poor man has just as much right to the social enjoyment they git out
of their saloon as you have, madam, to your afternoon teas and church
socials."

"What hinders the poor man from 'tendin' socials?" sez Arvilly,
spiritedly. "They are always bein' teased to, and anyway I never knew
tea to make anybody crazy drunk."

"The poor man," sez Elder Wessel in his most dictorial way, all of
Arvilly's talk havin' slipped offen him like rain water offen a brass
horn, "the poor man, after he has worked hard all day, and has nothing
to go home to but a room full of cryin' children, discomfort, squalor
and a complaining wife, is justified in my opinion to go to the only
bright, happy place he knows of, the saloon."

But I sez, bein' such a case for justice, "How is it with the wife who
has worked hard all day in the home of discomfort and squalor, her
work being rendered ten times harder and more nerve destroying than
her husband's by the care of the cryin' children, how would it be for
them, who are equally responsible for the marriage and the children,
to take holt together and make the children happier and the home less
full of discomfort?"

"Yes," sez Arvilly, "is it goin' to make the home less full of
discomfort to have him reel home at midnight and dash the hungry
cryin' baby aginst the wall and put out its feeble life, and mebby
kill the complainin' wife too?"

"Oh, those are extreme cases and uncommon," sez Elder Wessel.

"Not oncommon at all," sez Arvilly. "If you read the daily papers you
will see such things as this, the direct work of the saloon, are
continually occurrin