on this point. They pretty generally agree
that even a casual indulgence in beverages is not indicated for those who
seek to reduce. I am sure they are right. But as I remarked just now, what
can you do when you are encompassed about by the bottle-toting,
sop-it-up-behind-the-door custom which has sprung up since Prohibition was
slipped over on us by the Anti-Saloon League?

I confess that I have not the strength of character to swim, almost alone,
against the social current. So I partake of the occasional snort and to
that extent stand a self-admitted apologist for an offense which no true
reductionist should commit.

But I claim that otherwise--that in so far as the solid foodstuffs are
concerned--I have, for my own individual case, exactly the right idea
about it.

CHAPTER XI

_Three Cheers for Lithesome Grace Regained!_

My advice to the man or the woman who is in the same fix I was in is to go
and do likewise, with variations to suit the individual temperament. It
means self-denial but self-denial persevered in is a virtue, and virtue he
will find--or she will--not alone is its own reward but a number of
additional rewards as well. Let my late fellow sufferer likewise patronize
the gymnasium and the steam room and the cold plunge if he so chooses. If
he desires to have automatic pores, all right. As for me, I recall what
the Good Book says about the pores which ye have always with ye, and I
decline to worry about the present uncultured state of mine. Let him try
the electric rollers and the electric baths, if such be his bent; no doubt
they have their value. And by all means let him consult a qualified
physician if he fears either that he is overdoing or underdoing his
banting. Personally, though, I am satisfied with the plan I tried out, of
being my own private test tube.

I claim that I have better information touching on what sustenance I need
than any outsider ever can hope to have unless he breaks into me
surgically. I claim that a series of rational experiments should tell any
rational human how much he needs to eat and what he needs to eat in order
to reduce his bulk and yet keep his powers and his bodily vigor
unimpaired. I am not speaking now, understand me, of those unfortunates
with whom obesity is a disease, but of those who owe their grossness of
outline to gluttony. Lacking vital statistics on the subject, I
nevertheless dare assert that these latter constitute fully 90 per cent of
thos