The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-06-09

aTHE KING OF BEASTS

Ii is almost automatic that the successful dealer
ii liquors is, in the great majority Of cases, the
1 most perfect type of temperate man.
d Whether he ia a well-to-do proprietor OF
\ bar in the business districts, the hard-httng'
nativelv shrewd type that runs the doggery
along the waterfront or the millionaire drstIler,
u distributor or brewer. his safety from business
shipwreck is apt to rest upon his personal alb
stinencc
Many Of these men are personally honest; their
Inconsistency is sort of mental strabismus when
prevents their seeing in right focus. Having
learned that temperance is necessity for them
selves, they are unable to perceive why, II the
man who sells the stuff can let il alone, the man
who buys it cannot And So they pirate Of tenn
perance. while insisting on the right Ia dispense
intemperance No one is quicker than these mon
to cali the drunkard pig. They forget that IT
is they who furnish the swill to the swine.
But if the representatives of the liquor inter
esss are sober in life, they are constitut,onaliy
drunken in argument. At present, the national
organization of brewers is in CONVENTION at Wash
ington. From the report of the board OF
frrlstees'' trustees of what H. which claims that
the prohibition wave" has reached the flood and
il now subsiding, we Gull this gem of ratloclna-
fion:
.sThe prohibtionist is up against hopeless
fight on the natural law Of fermentation the board
of trustees believes. TO quote the report made to
the convention:
The whole vegetable world Is in a conspir-
acv against the prohibitionist. The bees become
intoxicated with the dstilation of the honey
suckle: the wasps grow dizzy in the drowsy clover
patch, and even the ants wobble III their walk
after they have Toasted upon the over-ripo fruit
fallen from t, tree which has started natural
fermentation.
And this statement follows the congratulatory
message 10 the convention that notwithstanding
prohibition linferentically by reason of ltl, the
sale of beer has increased 90,000.000 and the
sale of spirits 900, 900 gallons from ->h'ch the
s.trustees' argue that real temperance Is on the IN
crease through the means of increased capacity III
the individual drinkcr, who formerly snccuned
under per capita consumption Of alcohol that,
with his educated powers, he can now carry with
out blink or stagger. Following which, the report
turns to the vegetable and inferior life king
doms, to prove what That drunkenness is natur'
I al among the lower orders, and, therefore, we
suppose conmendable in the higher ones If this
be true. then the temperance that Is being ac-
quired through the ability to soak without slopp-
ing over is unnatural and pernicious. Make way,
HI Hduts. Tor IIlF IDFfTN on titlE Aoi tlt All
cient inborn nicely that prompted gentleman to
sleep on the floor rather than muddy the bed
clothes with his boots
What fine conception Of manhood exists in
this naive comparison, What if bee does
become intoxicated over flower, what if an ant
does stagger away from formented food 1t il
no new thing to declare that there is the power
Of intoxication in nature, the instinct for III
toxication in animals. But what Of the leading
representatives of one side Of problem that il
engaging the attention Of the civilized world wh'
find nothing 10 say except that, in the first place
man il more capable Of reason than an in
sect and, in the second place, that he is aequir
ing from the practice Of indulgence a capact,
for absorption Of poisons that makes him, in deco
and in truth, the King Of Beasts.
To prove transformation of the people from
an intoxicated TO a toxic condition does not gel
very far along the road toward real state OF
temperance.