THE DRIED-UP TRIPPER.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXVII, Issue 104, 4 May 1893, Page 4

THE DRIED-UP TRIPPER.

A DREAM OF THE (IMPROBABLE) FUTURE. Being at all times an absent minded man, it can scarcely be wondered at that my mind wandered from the details of the Liquor Traffic (Local Control) Bill. till it was with a start that I found myself getting out of the train at Wembley Park, that outer lung of London, with a host of holiday excursionists. They all of them carried grevious burdens heavy to be borne—small kegs, stone jars, flagrant black bottles, and decent rush baskets, " You see " said somebody behind me, apparently addressing me, "it is Easter Monday 1897 ; and as the Wembley Park resident does not love excursionists he has ' opted ' for prohibition and total closing— tried to dry them up, in fact. Iliac ilia' lacrhnuj ; each excursionist has his little drop."

We were all pouring out through the narrow gates from the platform and up the Wembley Park High street towards the common. " I do not know whether Wembley Park respectability will gain much by it," continued my informant (who I now perceived, was a pale-faced, seedy looking individual in a light grey coat with an opera hat), " because these people will certainly never carry half or a quarter of their bottles and jars home again. They will make cockshies of them all over the common — smash them up into Roman pottery. By Jove ! it's hot for Easter. That beer in the jar will be near boiling point. Don't you feel thirsty ? "

Curiously enough, I did. I am not usually a thirsty soul, but the droughty look of the sun-lit High street, with its dismantled pubs and the dusty wind that was blowing, did affect me. '• They have some nice sweet lemonade, and various liquors warranted to have all the bitterness of beer without its sinful exaltation, at the temperance tavern at the corner." The man in the opera hat looked at my face and laughed. " No," I said drily, " I will not bow to their strange gods." And so we went on to the common, I and this seedy individual ; and both of us were hot and thirsty, and we sat down on a mossy bank and talked of the drinks of the past,. " Then," said I pleasautly " the whole country has declared for prohibition ?." " Not a- bit of it — only the sober parts, like thie, havo slut their pubs. The local feeling in Seven Dials, for instance, is not against the publican?. Almost every town of any size now lias its respectable quarters?, where they ouly, drink at home; aud its ouo glorious drunken ward, whither the people resort from all parts and keep a perpetual Feast of Taber-nac-les and Lavo boozo in its streets. I wish ihey had a druukon ward in Wembley Park. You should Bee.''

" Thoie are not nearly so many people ou tho common here this year as thero used to be," ho remarked presently. "'I he railway companies now run excursion trains into the big towns as well r^ out of them ; most Villages have ppro.. ro . hibited. and the lucky publicans who. are planted in the umighteous districts" will lvali.-c colossal fortunes in a year- ov 6 o At Manchester there is just o nii wa ,d that h opted for alcohol, and cue polico have to regulate the foot tvafn c there to save people from being crushed to death." " JheiJ, again, this !r, g i s i atiou bas re . suited man cuormo' a 8 j ucreaßo iv tho number of soasou-tK jket holders. I have a sea-ou ticket to /imoritt, for instance, and go up two ov three times a day. And tho smaller tr-j of tho medical profession clo a good tr- at ie in prescription?." t ] roßC Viptiona ?" said 1. Icf. . — this kind of thing, Any chemir jt , wUI make it lip ., . Ho handed me a sheet of paper, bearlu o iv those hideoua characters which. n '.ediea,l men affect : — ! . _ March 1, 1697. A. J. bniith, Eeq. ii Alcohol (Scotch)... 1 drachm Aq, putiss. ... i drachm Misc. Mist. Threo or four times a day. As 1 was deciphering t-Lia my corapauiou suddenly gave an exclamation of pleased surprise. He sprang to his feet, and pointed to a small house some wav down tho hill, into which a great numb/jr of people were.^trooping. " That "mat bo a dining ealoon," he cried. Come along. Strange that I did not. iioti'.e that before." " iiut," said 1, " I am not hungry iam only as dry as desert sand. I am atl' irst." "Come along," he said. "Never "i md that, Ihey let them sell drink at « aming estabhshmeut, you know, iiut <