MODERATION AND TOTAL ABSTINENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXXIII, Issue 271, 30 November 1899, Page 3

MODERATION AND TOTAL ABSTINENCE.

To not Bom* ov "Tai E-nunao Muu" Sir — X have recently met with the following arguments^ against total abstinence. If, as I suspect, they involve •cane fallaoy, perhape eome. of your read«*a may be able to point out what it is. The first is is the form of a parody on a teetotaller's letter, iif Lewis Carroll's recast]/ pnblished "By hie and Bruno " concuuied i— ** To the Editor. Bir^-I was a moderato sleeper, and found a man that slept to excess, j pleaded with bim, ' Give np this lyimrinbed/I aaid, •It will injure your health.- 'You go to bed/ aaidhe.'why !*fln]ds*tJ r*. 'Yea,' 1 aaid, * but! know when to get up in the morning.' He turned from me. 'Tou sleep in your way l»tm*eleepinmißo. Re off.', Then I saw that to do any good with him I must forswear sleep. From that hour I haven't been is bed. The other was in the shape of a story told me by a friend. There wu a lady, like aome of our ladies here, an enthusiastic teetotaler, who came to her clergyman and begged him to establish a total abstinence soioety in the parish. He by no means took it up warmly, and replied that be thought that there were many other abuses besides intemperance wmch quite aa urgently demanded reform — dress, for example. Why not,' he said, ' eet up a society for, the improvement of dress i' ' I quite agree with you,' naid the lady, ' and I intend to start such a Society/ ' And may I ask, madam/ was the clergyman's withering rejoinder, ' whether you'intend to fount! it on principles of moderation or total oUtWnce F" ' : I am, etc., PUZZLED.