Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-10-22

to stimuiants or narcotics which TO US
may be abhorFent. His home and yours
nave you ever compared them? His leisure
ana yours. his environment and yours his
food and the conditions of its preparation
mis- fecreations, companionships-in one
WORD his resources and yours-do you
know, not how Ike, but how utterly unlike
,hey are? And yet when you talk to this
oroIher man you are surprised IL may be.
10 ma in him tastes and sympathies and
aspirations not unlike your own
y GU VIII gather from all this how sliper-
hcial. how utterly inhuman, Inconsistencies
ana unreasonable | regard "A great deal of
that doubtless often well-intentloned zeal
which seeks to make men and women yir-
tuous and temperature by law of indis-
cflnininate repression. l do, | do, And
If am sent here of God for nolhing else
an sent here to tell you that and to
entreat you to discern that most of our
methods for dealing with the drink evil
in our day and generation are tainted with
falsehood, dishonored by essential unreality
ana dscredlted by widespread and cons's-
tent failure. There is drink evil and you
and l must not ignore it. There Is a
task for Christian men and women. just
here, to perform. and you and ! must not
shirk IT. But let us begin by trying TO
recognize the facts, and then let us strive
TO deal with them I'm a way worthy of
their portentous significance.
ne life of men is necessarily largely
passed in their homes, and whatever mech
anisms we have devised for bettering the
conditions or varying the monotony or
widening the resources of the poor mans
Rome have had. a rule this defect: that
they touched only one or two members or
such home and habtually neglected the
woman VINO must forever be the center of
II; and who, in the homes OF the poor is
oitener than otherwise the prisoner most
closely confined and harder worked of ali.
10 you Know now what will bring largest
rellef and sunshine to such a toiler?
well III Is Just those whose tasks grow
oaliy more eXacting, and whose labor Is
If not more incessant more homogeneous
VINO are among the chief patrons of those
places and indulgences that we regard as
most evil.
1T is in vain that you tell the working
man that the saloon is evil until at least
you are honest enough to recognize that
there are features of ii that are not EVIL
ana that as often as otherwise those are
they which he most of all prizes and often
est turns to. For example one man goes
10 saloon TO get an intoxicant and for
ne other reason. Another goes there for
any one OF half dozen other PURPOSES
refreshment, amusement, companionship.
information, physical easement, business
appointment or mere change for which
last the more prosperous man goes To his
ciub or next door; this the majority of SEN
sloie people regard as wholly innocent"
blShop Potter concludes his answers TO
,he correspondent by referring to the pub
III. =
that 1t has done so much good that ii NAV
serve as a basis of reform. The man who
wants gin, or rum. whisky must go TO
place where they are sold by corporate
authority, very much as under the dis
pensary system in South Carolina and ut
Terry without profit to the individual who
sells them He says that because the
subway Tavern which was established
on this principle, has failed is 10 proof
that the principle is not right. He thinks
that there Will yet be found the proper de-
tails which will make the principle adapt
able to this country.
He closes by referring to the scene he
observed one summer night after night.
Nln the Tfvolf Gardens In Copenhagen-
how l wish could reproduce that charm
ing and altogether healthy and attractive
scene here!" He further saws that "ft
might become a part, and that q typicaI
part, of the summer life of this country
Inc gardens referred to do not differ es-
sentially from similar institutions in other
large European cities. Beautiful I'm ar
rangement and brilliantly lighted one finds
mere on an evening throngs Of people, be-
longing TO all classes of society, from the
nobility down-men, women and children
all we'll dressed, generally sitting in groups
at tables and slipping their refreshment
most generally beer. They listen to ex-
ceilent orchestral music. have their little
chats in the Intervals walk about stop-
ping where they find acquaintances and
the whole scene is permeated by a charm
ing spirit of refinement and serene So
ciability which cannot but add greatly tn
the enjoyment of life
The women, young and old drink beer.
Ihere Is no prudery about It, but there
preathes an atmosphere of culture which
commands moderation and self-restraint