The Opelousas courier. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1852-1910, 1895-07-27
That Punch |!

We rise to make a very disag,eeable
explanation. We hope the public will
not think We are making "much ado
about nothing" The circumstances may
seem trivial and from some points of
view amusing, yet as a matter of prin-
ciple is involved (our sincerity as Tenn
perance workers), and some very disa-
greeable events have been the outcome
Of the joke (g), we deem it but fair to
ourselves and others to make public the
| whole affair. We will begin at the be-
ginning, and let the little history un-
| fold itself
We some time ago attended the High
School Commencement the night was
quite warm, and when toward the close
| OF the exercises a waiter handed MS
some glasses with the remark: "Mr.-
sends some lemonade to Mr.. and Mrs.
=, with bis compliments" We were con-
vinced that Mr.. - was very consider
ate gentleman. Next us sat friend
who seemed oppressed by the heat, 80
we offered him some lemonade eve
beg his pardon most humbIy for having
so done.) We drank it remarking,
"W bat execrable lemonade must lie
made with brown sugar!' (This re-
mark did not reflect upon Mr.. IS cour-
tesy, as we knew the stuff was bought.)
cumstance until it was recalled to our
mind on last Saturday evening. We had
noticed some of our yOung friends had
seemed to avoid us Of late, and in tile
course of conversation with Il friend
spoke Of that fact. "Oh," was the re-
ply, B. says he never will believe in
the truth of any woman, never will be-
lieve in religion, nor anything that is
good, because he saw you drink punch,
and dozens of Others saw you! We
were amazed. We drink punch We
simply knew better! He says it ia no
use to deny it, for everybody at the Ope-
IA House saw You, and the town is talk
ing about it! We considered, where
could we have drank anything? Sud-
denly the incident Of the execrable lem
onade flashed across our mind. Could
it beq Surely not, for two potent rea-
SONS: 1st. We drank that stuff at
scIl0ol exhibition, at commencement ex-
ercises-at exercises which an ordained
minister Of the gospel had been invited
to open with prayer! Surely, intOxi-
cants were not for sale there. Could
any stretch of the sane imagination
make such {: combination assimilate ?
ListeD-School exhibition, Invocation of
Gods blessing, Public Bar, Ball! Ye
gods and little fishes Could the CON-
munity stomach such mixture of anti
podal elements without an attack of in
digestion If 80. tits the one in 10000
Yet, "dozens of people" saw us drink
that punch! We were perfectly inno-
cent of all knowledge as to the taste Of
punch-never had tasted any. So, how
could We say that was not punch7
Now, so small a matter could orllina-
rily be dismissed with laugh, yet one
with conscience can not laugh away a
reflection on principle, nor willingly
prove stumbling block to others. So
the truth must be got at. And now. the
second reason why we should not believe
that to have been punch. Our friend
sent us lemonade. SO expressly specified
by the waiter. We had no reason to
doubt his representation We had given
no one occasion to offer US gratuitons
insult, and 10 view of cur outspoken
Temperance predictions an offer Of
punch would certainly have been a gra-
tnitous insult. We knew our friend in
capable of such, and indeed why should
we have anticipated anything Of the
kind from any gentleman in Opelousas.
We believe iD short cuts to the truth,
80 we asked him. This is what he said
]" bought it for lemonade, and think it