Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1900-02-10
CUSTOM OF TREATING. +"
II Il at the Root OF the Drink Evil rs.
Dsy-Strong Words by DE-.
Theodore L. Cuyler.

Theodore L. Cuyler.
Several years ago gentleman Of my
acquaintance fell into the habit of using
intoxicants until he seldom passed .
day without some symptoms of drunk.
enness. He sometimes came home to
his family in state OF beastly intoxi.
cation. Under their piteous appeals he
consented to go to an inebriate asylum,
and after few months of treatment
he came back apparently entirely re.
formed. Sunshine again filed the house
that had long been Swallowed with
shame and sorrow. He continued sober
for several months, but one day an old
friend met him in New York, greeted
him cordially and invited him to go into
a downtown restaurant and take a SO.
cial glass with him. Under a sudden
impulse he yielded, and that one glass
aroused the latent Appetite; the
chained tiger was loosed again, and my
poor friend went home that night pitia.
bly, and disgracefully drunk During
the brief remainder of his life he was a
wreck
That whole wretched tragedy Of 9
ruined life was the result of single act
which goes under the deceitful name of
treating" That friend who offered
the epsnaring glass proved to be dead
ly enemyi Grant that he had no inten
ton to work fatal mischief; grant
,, that he had no thought of doing a Sc
fious harm. BE did 1t, however, as II he
had been actuated by fiendish malice,
''For evil Is wrought by want OF thought,
AS well as by want OF heart
The pernicious and abominable GUS
tom Of treating" a friend TO glass of
intoxicating liquor is one of the most
prolific causes of intemperance. It
often engenders the habit of drinking;
1t often confirms the awful propensity;
and sometimes, as in the case of that
gentleman mentioned in the beginning
Of this article, it sends a reformed In
ebriate back into the mire. The dan
ger Of this treating custom Is that II
wears the guise of friendship and ap-
peals to the weak side of Thurman nature.
Come and take drink with me-" sayx
the politician who hopes TO win q vote.
Won't You take social glass with
me?" is the subtle inyitati of false
friendship that il too often yielded to.
1t Is not everyone that has the nerve
Of Brooklyn neighbor of mine who,
having once been an inebriate, used to
say to anyone who invited him to take
q drink: ''If you ask me to do that
again III knock you DOWN."
This perilous custom of treating has
spread very widely. When a customer
has made good purchase be is often
invited by the merchant to 60 off to a
restaurant or a barroom for q bottle of
wine to "close up the bargain"
The drummers for commercial houses
seek very often TO win customers
by polite invitations to q drink
ing resort, or TO a theater, or
sometimes to haunts too vile to be men,
toned. I know OF a very affable sales
man in wholesale dry goods establish
ment who became dissipated man
from having to invite customers to
lunch with him over q bottle of winei
His employers set that bright young
man to tempt other people, and he did
IL at the cost of his own character. The
various athletic contests and intercol-
legiate ball games are attended with an
enormous amount Of hard drinking;
much OF it takes the form of treating
by those who have won their games or
their bets. 1t is not too much to say
that a vast amount of intemperance,
with its terrible results to purse, char
acter and immortal souls, can be traced
directly to that cunning device of the
devil which puts poison into a mans
brain. under the pretense of putting q
kindness into his heart.
In these days very large amount Of
moral artillery is very properly aimed
at the traffic in intoxicants. Righteous
denunciations are hurled at the saloons.
But the destructive drink traffic really
Is fed by and depends upon the drink
custom. Intemperance is bred in the
club, in the home and in the social cir
Gle as well as in the barroom. The pur-
chaser of liquor is a partner with the
liquor seller. Everyone who buys an
intoxicant or offers an intoxicant to
another does his or her part toward
maintaining the drink customs which
underlie the waste and the woe and
wretchedness Of intemperance. The
question OF wages and OF justice to the
Iaboring man absorbs wide attention;
but who will dispute that If all the
money that is spent by the working
classes in treating" each other to al
coholic beverages were saved there
would be thousands of better furnished
homes, better clad wives and better fed
children?
There is another very weighty
thought to be faced by every mans con-
science. 1t is this. The person who
offers an intoxicating glass to another
from whatever motive-is responsible
for the results of that glassl The false
friend who in obedience to foolish and
abominable custom treated" the re-
formed inebriate of whom spoke to a
treacherous drink of liquor was respon-
sible, to certain extent, for that mans
relapse and ruin Certainly, if he had
not asked and urged that gentleman to
drink with him he would not have
touched the fatal drop. "Woe unto him