The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-11-24
The Question OF Incbriety.

At discussion Of the question OF
Tho Saloon. Its Function and Pcrils,
by clerical and lay philosophers. in New
York last week, a clergyman of Pitts
field in Massachusetts,. the Rev, RAY
MoND CALKINs, is reported to have made
these rather surprising remarks:
The saloon is m'nsterlng to the social ,nStinc,
OF the people and that is why II exercises It's mys
terious and powerful M Iencc In every community.
II Is an Information bureau. II Is labor bureau.
a post once place Of recreation Amusement, and
fellowship,
Picture the condition Of young lshorlns man
alone In the city. IS he goes to his room In his
boarding house. past dark and gloomy churches.
he Ands one door open TO I'm, and he Nnds ustih
cation far seeking his amusement IN the saloon in
the cola and un Interested att tudc OF our Christian
socrty."
The influence exercised by the drink
ing saloon in every community is not at
all mysterious, Mr.. CALKINs, but is
due to a cause which has always been
apparent. The saloon exists because il
provides qualification for the appetite for
alcoholic stimulation, an appetite which
has been powerful from the time when
NOAH, after landing from the Ark, be-
gan to be husbandman, planted a
vineyard, and drank of the wine and
was drunken" Neither in Pittsfeld nor
in New York do people go to saloon to
get information or to obtain labor, to
post their lett ers, or simply for recreation,
amusement and fellowship. They go to
it to get drink At a great part Of the
bars the customers tarry only long
enough to pour down their doses Of liq-
uor, though at the beer gardens a spirit
Of sociability may prevail The great
and primary attraction at all is the
stmulant.
Neither is the Rev. Mr.. CALKINs just-
quent saloons to the default of churches
and Christians. No young laboring
man alone in the city is driven to the
saloon by their neglect to exercise the
influence proper to them and none will
make that excuse for going to drinking
place unless he is seeking to manufact-
ure pretext for gratifying his appetite.
Nothing except his desire for a drink is
responsible for his course.
How to find "a substitute for the
saloon was q question much discussed
at this conference Such a substitute. il
seems from statistics gathered by DR..
CRoTHERs, has been found by great
numbers Of people in the secret use Of
morphine; and We are receiving letters
from victims of the habit which confirm
his observation and conclusion that it il
widespread, all Of them being from men
far above the average in intelligence.
II is demonstrated that when the appe-
tite for artificial stimulation is thwarted
in one direction it may be diverted to
another and still more dangerous and
pernicious form of indulgence; that fire.
Quently men and women who detest
alcoholic drunkenness fall prey to an
infinitely worse intoxication.
The cure for the influence Of the saloon
which seems so mysterious to the
Pttsfeld clergyman is not in improving
drinking places, so as 10 make them
more desirably efficient in ministering
to the social instinct Of the people" but
in controlling the appetite for stimulants
to which they minister, first of all. So
long az that appetite is left unrestrained
| the evil results, whether there are or are
not saloons at which to crafty it. A
drunkard does not need TO 90 to a saloon
to get drunk He can keep the stuff at
home. The strictest abstaincr from
alcohol may secretly keep hypodermic
syringe with which to inject morphine
into his system, to his utter undoing.
The question OF inebriety is very much
larger than the saloon question.