The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-11-10


est topics of discussion and one that
YOU will find on the syllabus OF al
most every debating society is the time
honored old question, els alcohol
luxury or a necessity9" L suppose 1t
is safe to say that for many years
opinion on the subject has been fairly
evenly divided. Latterly, however,
several advances in medical science,
notably the use of oxygen as restora-
tive, have done much to supplant alco-
hol as a necessity in cases of sudden
collapse, and thus its supporters have
had one of the strongest planks in
their argument torn away. 1t is not
my purpose, however, to discuss the
necessity of alcohol; such an argument
must largely depend on what is a
necessity" and that is debate
which may land us anywhere.
Let us ask ourselves the more serious
question. sis alcohol any longer a lux
ury?" The different chancellors of the
exchequer have always thought So
the present one more decidedly than
any of his predecessors-bu from the
various evidences that surround US it
appears that the glory of ALCOHOLICS day
has departed and that new dissipa-
ton has come from the east. The
proof of this may easily be supported
by figures. The decline of England s
drink bill is well known and only a
day or two ago the board of trade
gave us the 'Ftea' returns for 1903 at
1923 ,469 1888 pounds, valued at f10,734,
AIS. 1t is, however, more interesting
TO take the human evidences which sur
round us in the streets, the clubs and
the public houses than to bore our
selves with the tedious veracity of
rows of figures. Such evidences is not
far to seek. So conspicuous is it that
the decay of the drink habit has be-
come an almost permanent topic of dis
eussion wherever men gather together.
The Great Revolution.
The more | talk with members of
my own generation-and my own gen
Grafton includes all who are at pre-
sent in the late thirties or the early
forties-the more it appears that we
of the Junior middle-age group have
lived through one of the most remark
able social revolutions in history.
doubt if any two decades in all the
centuries we know of have wrought
such an extraordinary change in the
ordinary lives of ordinary middleclass
men as the last twenty years have.
This fact becomes Immediately evident
to any one who is old enough to com
pare the men of today with the men
of twenty years ago. No one can deny
that we are cleaner, healthier, filter
and more wholesome lot of people than
/ we used to be.
To offer reasons for this very excel
lent advance in our we'll being is a
simple matter. A dozen or more sug-
gest. themselves at once. We take
| more exercise, we live more in the
fresh air, we get about more quickly
| and more easily, we are better off and
life has more conveniences. But al
| these are merely manifestations, corol
| laries or results of the great revolution
one might almost say ppheaval-
| which has changed us in a short TWEEN
| ~ years from a slightly intemperatt
| TO an almost strictly temperate ma
tion. And ! claim that we middle-aget
men of today have been the leader
of this great and silent revolution. W,
came into manhood 5 estate some TWEEN
ty years ago. when the exclamation
"Hello!f was invariably followed b,
he invitation, "Come and have
drink We. were junior members o
our clubs when whisky drinking wa
an established cult. We grew up int
word where the teetotaler was
freak-a marked man. Nowadays
is unnecessary to drink whisky to mar
ones giadness at meeting an oil
. friend; we can spend hours in our club
without the support of alcohol, and tn
freak-the marked mans he VIII
= still adheres to the old-fashioned Gu
of ''nipping.'
" The New Sobriety.
Il Let any one who desires furtht
Y proof Of our new sobrietv look abol
7 him. The sad-faced secretaries of Il
!. clubs in Pieeadil]v and Pail Mail waite
their depicting liquor revenues in de