Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1901-05-24

Tor 1t Is the other-your giving way to
an impulse to drink-that fills me with
concern. You come up like a man, adj
NIT your fault and say you deserve and
expect my severe censure. Well, I've
thought it all over, Sandy. My heart and
my arms go out to you in your distress and
humiliation. and-I have not one word
| OF reproach or blame to give you.
For now I shall tell you what I had
thought to say when your graduation drew
nigh, had we been able to master me-
chantcs and molecules and other mathe-
NAUTICAL rot not as useful to cavalry Off
Ger as binocular to a blind man, and that
ought to have told you when you start
ed out for yourself as young ranchero,
but could not bring myself to it SO long
as you seemed to have no inclination that
way. Times. men, and customs have great
ly changed in the last 40 or so years. my
boy, and greatly for the better. Looking
back over my boyhood, can recall no day
when wine was not served on your grandfa-
theirs table. The brightest minds and
bravest men in all Kentucky pledged each
other day and night in the cup that some
times cheers and Outlines inebriates, and
no public occasion was complete without
champagne and whisky In abundance, no
personal or private transaction considered
suspicious unless appropriately wet
''Those were days when our statesmen
reveled in sentiment and song and drank
and gambled with the fervor of the fol-
lowers of the races. l was boy of ten
der years then, and often, with my play
mates. was called from our merry games
to join the gentlemen over their wine and
drain bumper to our glorious Harry of
the West, and before went to the Point,
Sandy, 1 knew the best, and possibly the
worst whiskys made in Kentucky-we all
did-and the man or youth who could not
stand his glass of liquor was looked upon
as milksop, or pitied. and yet, after all,
respected, as a 'singed cat'-a fellow who
owned that John Barleycorn was too much
for him. and he did not dare single round
with him.
Then came the great war, and wars are
always In one way demoralizing. West
Point In the early sixties was utterly unlike
the West Point of to-day, and no worse
than dozen of our greatest colleges. Tha
corps still had its tales and traditions Of
the old-time Fourth Of July dinners at the
mess hall When everybody made dash
for the decanters and drank everything in
sight. 1t was the only day in the year
| on which wine was served. 1t was in my
] time the invariable custom for the super
| intendent to receive the board of visitors
| on the day of their arrival at his quarters
and to invite the officers and the GRADUATE
| Ing class to meet them. and to set forth,
| as for years had been the fashion at WASH
| ington, wine and punch In abundance, and
the very officers detailed as our instructors
| would laughingly invite and charrehge the
&
wear the blue to drink with them again
| and again. have seen dozens of the best
| and bravest of our fellows come reeling
| and shouting back to barracks and a
thoughtless set of boys laughing and APP
| plauding.
| II was stationed at the Point soon after
| graduation, and the men who drank were
| the rule, not the exception. Social visits
| were rarely exchanged without the intro
duction of the decanter The marvel is
that so many were temperate in our meat
| and drink as my father and grandfather
used to plead when regularly every morn
Ing. the family and the negro servants were
mustered for prayers. At every post where
was stationed, either In the east or where
| was most at home-the far frontier
whisky was the established custom. and
| man after man, fellows who had ade fine
| records during the war. and bright boys
| with whom I had worn the gray at the
| Point, fell by the wayside and were court.
| martialed out of service.
| I'm 70 and II We had board that swept
l the army like seine, and relegated scores
| of tipplers to civil life. but that didn't
| stop it. Little by little the sense and man
| hood of our people began to tell Little
| by little the feeling against stimulant be-
| gan to develop at the Point. 1t was no
| longer joke to set a fledgling officer TO
| taste the tempter-it was a crime. Four
| years after l was commissioned we had
| one total abstainer out of some 80 officers
| at the mess. and he was a man whose life
| and honor depended on it. Three years
| ago, when l went to see you there were
| dozens at the mess who never drank at all.
| only eight who even smoked. Athletics and
rifle practice had much to do with this.
| I know. but there has gradually developed
| all over our land, notably in those commu-
| mites where the custom used to be most
honored in the observance. total revui-
| sion of sentiment
Quarter OF century ago even among
many gently nurtured women the sight Of