The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-11-04
The Passing Of the Drunk
Rv lanes H. Wilkins in San Francisco Town Talk.

ing and so, after a fashion, the ms
chinery was kept in motion. Now tn
working department of q big news
paper. from top TO bottom, is as Or
as a powder house. Gone is the rae
Of reporters whose laugh made tn
chandeliers tinkle, whose sallies g.
ways brought forth a clatter on tn
saw dust floor Gone are the mechan
zeal men who packed Norman's resor
as the big papers went TO press abou
2:3O a. m. and who usually kept thing
humming till far into the day. tn
silent grave has closed over most o
Fthem and in their place sobriety. orde
and precision reign supreme. Look a
/ the Bar of San Francisco. With yer!
rare exceptions, can you imagine {
more decorous, temperate and in al
respects proper body of men? Cal
/ you realize that these exemplars Of
| all the virtues are the successors OF
( that most charming, brilliant, ROSTER
| ing, convivial Bench and Bar. whose
social gifts made San F'rancisco's hos
pitality worId-famous in the earlier
days? Somewhere beyond the River
Styx I hope there amiable shades stili
gather around the table of some Hade-
ian Poodle Dog or illuminate ghostly
functions with the sparks OF their wit
And the men of affairs, the bankers.
financiers, merchants, together with
their subordinates and imitators. what
a gallant lot of topers they were! AS
youngster. I knew most OF our Dig
men way back in the earlier seventies,
through acquaintance with their sons,
and I do not recall any Of them whom
T did not see at some time materially
the worse for liquor. 1t excited no
comment whatsoever then: but sup
pose some bank president or other
business magnate should now make
such a spectacle of himself that a boy
would know he was drunk, what
precious morsel for gossip that would
be!
Nor Is it alone along the line Of en-
ployment that the boozer is being dis
eliminated against. He is suffering
socially and that appeals to his man
pride, the strongest force in human
nature. When you drive the redhot
iron of humiliation and shame into
the raw, quivering flesh Of man who
has an atom of self respect left, 1t
will brace him to some mighty effort
as no other consideration can. 1t fs
bad enough to be denied professional
success and to have the principal ave-
nues of business preferment closed
2 gainst him but when a person finds
that he Is becoming an outcast, that
his friends are giving him the over |
look, that good women avoid his ac-
luaintance, that social and secret So
cieties, as a rule, bar him from their |
he must be of an unusual
.ype If he does not make one final at |
tempt to set the brakes.
To De sure, we have drunks still with |
is here, many thousands of them, but |
they are disappearing every day. The |
new generation that is coming on will |
ind. without being told. that sobriety |
and success go hand in hand and that |
/ man of Incorporate habits has no
more chance of holding his own IN any
or business line than the
elbow in a bank who adds up q
column of figures eight or ten times
nd gets different result every clip.
70 the young man with decent aInbi-
ion. this alone will be quite enough
o steady his course To many others.
hs social discrimination will be need
q to brace him up. / am aware that
n high society certain fresh young
len, mostly possessors Of inherited
realth. consider it smart to whiskify
themselves before entering a ballroom
nd that this custom is tolerated. But
l the solid. well-bred, sterling, self
sspecting elements of society there is
0 more room for drunk than for a
ickpocket. Mothers will not have
kEas, N1. ~,
iris themselves understand pretty ,
ell that however brilliant the colors :
nat alcohol sometimes imparts to I
outh they will not bear the test of ,
lie wash. The problem VIII soon get '
own to square case of the survival I
7 the fittest. The sober will multiply ! I
nd possess the earth. The intern
crate will wfther away and vanish. {
How strong this purely business $
lovement against intemperance has $
acome in California can be seen in I
her ways. For years past. not a sin t
lie municipal government has been or t
anfzed, to my knowledge, without an
Osolute anti-saloon ordinance or one
hitting the number of saloons to =
minimum, usually to one. Many large .
ties and towns have legislated
'astically on the subject and a very :
rye part of the State is now dry or Z
least semi-arid. The proponents of
lis policy are nots always total alb c
ainers. They object to saloons in :
cir neighborhood because they at T
act DRINKS, buns, suspicious char +
tiers, human wrecks of all descrip- 7
ons, in fact create them. See here :,
tain how the poor old drunk is dis =
minated against. He is practically .
ut out from residence in some of the :
ost delightful and salubrious spots in "
Llifornia. And this stand of the anti ?,
loon man is perfectly correct. There :,
e barrooms that are conducted on -
cent principles, to which I take no ;,
ception, but the vast majority of ?,
EN-, especially in large cities, are ie
thing but deadfalls and shelters for -
,e and crime. Every saloon of this :,
pc has its quota of derelicts hanging 9,
ound 1t. who live God only knows a.
W. except that it is not by any form e
honest work These men are not n
ly an offense to the eye and often | -
danger 10 life and property but are ~