The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1897-09-23
is A SOCIAL CENTER.
Why the Saloon Maintains Such q
Hold UpOn Society.

ST. * &c III t-N49tNilNC tAiC SoACCAA AA~AAo
shown wonderful fitness to survive. Ii
sneers at lectures, SCOTS at sermons,
darts of satire are counted as stubble,
and it laughs at the shaking of the
statistical spear. Prohibitionhas often
attempted TO put its hook into the nose
of this mighty leviathan, and draw him
out of society; but after Stimulating
death for a longer or shorter time the
sly monster escapes from the hook and
is found in his old haunts again; with a
heart ''as firm as a stone; yea as hard as
piece of the neither milestone"
Why is the saloon so hard to Danish
from society? Because it is more than
a pace for the sale of Intoxicating
liquors. It is a social center which
offers various attractions to average hui
man nature. Man is not naturally a
consumer of alcohol. Taste for water,
milk, and other potable fluids which
nature furnishes in large quantities is
natural; but alcohol has to be manu-
| featured. and confirmed taste for it has
| be acquired.
But man is naturally a social being;
and the saloon, taking advantage of
mans social nature, opens pleasant
place for men to come together, strives
to create an atmosphere of jolly good
| fellowship. quickens conviviality by the
stimulation of alcohol, and men con-
gregate therein not to get drunk-at
least not intentionally-bu 10 have
good time.
The relation of alcohol to the social
passion in man is we'll brought out in
Burns song:
| willie brewed a peck O. maui
An Rob an Allen cam to pree."
Neither of the three jolly drinkers
would have sat up all night alone, drink
ing the strong ale brewed from that
peck of malt; but the ale furnished an
incentive for coming together, their
social natures frightened the passing
hours. and the ale stimulated their
social natures to make night of it to-
gether in spite of growing cock or
dawning day.
The evils of the saloon are evident to
every careful observer; but social value
of the saloont-that is, its social value
in the estimation of the men who fire.
quent it-has not been sufficiently con-
sidered
An article in the American Journal of
Sociology declares that primarily the
saloon is a social center. There is much
truth in this. 1t is the democratic club
of the workingman. There he finds
light, warmth in winter and GOODNESS in
summer music in some saloons, amuse-
ments of various kinds in all of them,
papers, a free lunch, and there he meets
acquaintances and strangers who are
in a social mood. He hears stories and
songs which are broad rather than high,
but like the pickles and pretzels of the
free lunch they seem to fit the place
and the company. The saloon well
comes him when his hours of labor are
ended; it is much better furnished than
his Owl, home; and there, too often, he
finds company which is more attractive
to his faded powers than the company
which he finds in his own home. Not
that he does not love his family, but the
saloon is a forum where he finds that
zestful variety which his social nature
Graves.
To all Of this alcohol adds its subtle
and, dangerous zest. The first action
of ethylic alcohol" says DR.. Kerr, ''is
vascular relaxation, commonly called
eXhilaration or stimulation. when .
glow of warmthspreads over the whole
system, when the heart beats faster,
when happy thoughts crowd in upon
the brain, when all seems life and light
and JOY, when everything without and
within wears a roseate hue" Through
the nervous system the social feelings
are stimulated until, when ''the wine is
in" and the wit is out" in sufficient de-
gree, almost any drinking companion,
however dull and foolish naturally, is,
for the time, "a jolly good fellow"
1t is quite easy to show that the sa-
loon keeper is selfish; that greed, not
hospitality, moves him to keep open
house SO many hours in the day; that
the bonhomie of the bartender is part
of his stock in trade; that the saloon
robs many families of proper support;
that the drinking there practiced leads
to the major part of crime; but in striv-
ing to drive it from society we must
reckon with It as a social center.
Can the church, the home, the social
and educational club, and other organ
izations which minister in various de-
9rees to mans social nature, successful
ly compete with the saloon as social
centers? They can, with special classes
20 which they appeal; but there are
thousands of young men, and thou
sands of men who have families, who
make the saloon their club, and find
in it a special attraction which draws
them away fromhelpful social agencies.
They do not need alcohol: they may
crave il, but the craving has been created
and is abnormal. But they do need the
intellectual and emotional stimulus
which social intercourse supplies. How
shall applied Christianity outfanll and
rout alcohol by fully supplying this
! need apart from the saloon Advance.
How to Drink and Keep Sober.
Various are the methods we have
seen prescribed to avoid drunkenness.
Some good people have advocated
drinking sitting down" The trouble is
that some who drink sitting down"
find in the end that they cannot get
up. Others have discovered the virtue
of drinking standing up" as in Ber-