The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1892-09-29
A E:ERNlCIOUS CUSTOM.
An ExaRf Grated Form of Hospitality All
lta Cerrihla Results

An ExaRf erated Form of Hospitality and
Its Terrible Results.
The treating habit is an exclu-
sively Aperican custom, not existing in
any other country. AS a recent writer
says: 1T is hospitable vice, vice of
kings, but vice just the same, that
has become dangerous as we'll as an
expensive nuisance" 1t is an exagger.
ated form of hospitality, a hypercro-
ply OF gOOd-fellowship. just why a
man should consider H. incum bent upon
him to take friend into the nearest
saloon and purchase drink of liquor
for him, as though he were an object
of charity, no one can tell. And it is
equally unexplainable why the person
treated should deem it incumben upon
himself to Immediately insist upon in
turn treating his friend. for proba bly,
neither really desire the second drink,
and only imblbe it from an utterly mis-
laws of hospitality.
1t is not too much to say that the
useless treating habit is responsible for
the greater part of the drunkenness in
this country. 1t is responsible for
starting thousands every year upon the
road to intemperanee. A young man
naturally seeks the association of his
fellows of evenings, when he is at
leisure. One insists upon "having a
drink" and will take no refusal. The
victim yields, and, of course, feels it
incumbent upon him to treat in his
turn. He thus becomes accustomed to
an occasional driuk-and they become
far more frequent as time goes on. The
fearful evil of all alcoholic drinks is
that they create in the physical system
what is commonly described as the
''drink thirst" 1t is a diseased con-
dition of the body in which there is an
unnatural craving for stimulus which
can only be allayed by more drink
Thousands of men have INDUCED in
drinking as an ''occasional' habit un-
til they found that they had this crav-
ing for alcohol fixed upon them. The
drink habit then becomes per-
manency. And when this happens, not
one in a thousand but follows the same
road and arrives, sooner or later, at the
inevitable end-a drunkard's grave.
There is no young man. probably
who starts out in life determined to be-
come sot. So perverted a moral ma
ture could only exist in a veritable
monster. The vast majority of those
who are confirmed drinkers-that is.
who have this horrible, unnatural rum
thirst fastened upon them-regret it
bitterly, and long to he free from it.
But they cannot get out of bondage.
One OF the many physical evils of
alcohol is that it weakens the moral
fiber and destroys the will power. Its
victim would be free if he could, but
he has lost the power to resolutely say
mot" and refuse to do the imperious
bidding of the habit which has en-
shaved him. Those who have never
come under the baleful spell of rum
sheer a. his weakness, because they
do not understand it. He is an object
OF pity, not of contempt. There is but
one hope for such men-of whom there
are tens Of thousands to-day in this
country-and that is, that it shall be
impossible for them to obtain any alco-
holic intoxicant. Their only salvation
is to have the manufacture and sale
OF all intoxicants stopped entirely
Without this their. case is an utterly
hopeless one. We need to have the
facts concerning the dangers of drink
more thoroughly understood by the peo-