TO CYCLISTS.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 10215, 10 December 1898, Page 5

TO CYCLISTS.

To the Editor of the Temperance Column. Sir,—Will you allow mc to tell cyclists, through your column, what Dr> Oscar Jennings, 'of Paris, says, "For the cyclist, the strictest temperance is indispensable, but entire abstinence from alcoholic drinks is still better." He adds. "The experience of cycling upsets the foolish impression that wine imparts strength. Cycling has its usefukess in the struggfe against intemperance. The achievements of young men who have renounced stimulants for the love of their sport may be remembered by hundreds of thousands." These remarks agree entirely with what is said also by Dr. Cortis, Dr. Stables, Dr. Trissie, Lord Burr, Mr Lacy Hillier, and others. Mr Spurrier, in the "Gyclists' Route Book," says, "Alcoholic drinks should be avoided., as they prevent good work being done." Professor Hoffman, in his work, "Tips for Tricyclists," says, "The best work in cycling, as in most other Cases, is unquestionably done without alcoholic drinks. The great achievements of the record-breakers, particularly for long distances, have almost invariably been performed under total abstinence conditions." It is necessary to add that cycling in itself is a great adjunct to temperance. A drunken man, or even one partially inebriated, on a cycle—whoever saw such a spectacle?— Yours, &c, A CHURCHMAN. Father O'Leaiy, for nineteen years ohaplain of Cork prison, giving evidence before the Royal Commission, said: Last year the , Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children had seventy cases under super- ! vision, and in only one was it found that intemperance was not at the bottom of the I cruelty. In the case of. nearly 600 children | negleob and ill-treatment) had been the result of habitual intemperance on the part of the parents. As the result of observation durj ing the time he was prison chaplain, he had come to the conclusion that 99 per cent, of-the prisoners owed their misfortunes to drink.—"Our Advocate," November, 2898. . Al The late Lord Derby, in estimating the political forces in the country, once said: "Nothing could be more foolish than to estimate the power of Temperance reformers by their numerical strength, as uhey were moral "formers, whose earnestness amd •unfrVus-'O-m could not be tabulated by figures." - A woman -with over a hundred convictions against her appeared before the Hamilton justices charged with drunkenness. The bailie said it was difficult to know what to do with the prisoner. She must be perfectly well known to the publicans, and he wislhed it to be understood that if be learned who it was who supplied her witih drink it would be a bad job for \ ttha* individual." — "The Alliance News," September, 1898. ■ At the annual meeting of the shareholders of the - Distillery Company, Ltd.,- held in Glasgow on Monday week, Mr P.. J. Mackie, in. moving the adoption of-the report, asserted that in the export trade, in which the company was la-gely;; ixdierestedj very reprehensible tactics were employed by certain firms in trying to gain a footing—such as bribing the barmaids with silk dresses and diamond rinds.---"The AlMance News," September, 1898. 5518