TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21244, 27 January 1931, Page 2

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Published by arrangement with the United Temperance Reform Council. MARSHAL JOFFHE. Those who are in the habit of regarding intoxicating liquors as stimulants, especially those who consider spirits as good for the heart, would doubtless be iiltercstod to observe the report that appeared in the news at the time of the death of Marshal Joffre. The press report was as follows: —“Teetotallers are comforted by the theory of Professor Leriche, the chief consultant, that the heart’s strength was’ due to the fact that the marshal had not touched alcohol in any form for 30 years.” It is a remarkable thing that two such distinguished Frenchmen as Clemenceau and Marshal Joffre were teetotallers. Clemenceatij indeed, penned a very forceful condemnation of alcohol as a beverage. Now, here we have a distinguished French physician declaring that the strength of Marshal, Joffre’s heart was owing to his not having touched alcohol in any form for 30 years. LISBON WINE. The British Temperance Advocate makes a reference to a case of a woman who died from alcoholism. The medical evidence showed she was addicted to what is known ns Lisbon wine, which the doctors asserted was extremely injurious to health, and much of it quickly produced delirium tremens. Another woman in Sheffield died as the result of drinking wine. _ The evidence showed she had had two pints of white wine from wine merchants, who declared that it was perfectly pure. ALCOHOL AND ATHLETICS DO NOT MIX. “ The Truth About Wine ” is the name of a new pamphlet being put out in France for the school children, of that country and the world, according to a recent cable message from Paris. Its purpose is to counteract the education for temperance and prohibition, and to encourage the children to drink. The project is a sequel to a discussion some time ago in the Chamber of Deputies, when the leader of the wine producers' group, Edouard Barthe, severely criticised certain passages in the French school text books which condemned drinking and praised the prohibition law of the United States. French hotels and restaurants arc also being urged to return to the pre-war custom of including wine with aU mixed price meals, A vigorous campaign is on, in other words, to increase wine consumption in France and everywhere. But shall youth drink? Is there any truth in the old saying, “A sound mind in a sound body? ” If drink would promote their success, we should surely find that the leaders in athletics to-day were drinkers. Let us see how the athletes in the countries without prohibition laws regard this question. What, there, is the sportsman’s reaction to drink? Early in the year, a cable from London appeared in the Cape Argus saying that “ Oxford will be the darlings of the 1930 boat race. . . . In addition to a pint and a-half of beer daily, the Oxford crew are taking doses of champagne' twice a week,” The Oxford crew did start out well, but little by little was outdistanced by the Cambridge team, which won in the fastest time since 1924, and “ The Cambridge crew,” we are told, “ showed no signs of distress when they finished, but some of the Oxford crew leaned on their oars and looked as if outrowed.” The secret?—the Oxford crew had clung to the obsolete fashion of training on alcohol, while the Cambridge crew liad given up intoxicants. The critic who says, “ Oh, it only happened so,” may be referred to other records, for at the annual interuniversity sports meet Cambridge again beat Oxford—in eight events out of 11 — for the sixth year in succession. Jack Hobbs, whose name in familiar to sportsmen everywhere, is one of the greatest of English cricketers, and a total abstainer. _ Recently he received a letter which, with the reply,Avis published. In part it read:— “ It has to-day been stated in my hearing that your regular custom is to take two glasses of bitter beer each morning * before starting The gentleman who made this statement claims to have the information on ‘very good authority.’ I have long understood that you are a total abstainer. If above statement is incorrect, I should be most grateful if you ■could favour me with a line or two on the subject. It would afford me much satisfaction to be able to contradict my fellowtownsman’s statement, and many others would be greatly interested, too. . . .” To this Mr Hobbs replied;— “ In reply to your letter of .the 11th instant, I should like to say that the gentleman who made the statement about the two glasses of ‘ bitter ’ did not have ‘ very good authority,’ for his information. You are right, and I am a total abstainer.” Other members of the English team are also total abstainers. Herbert Sutcliffe, partner of Jack Hobbs, and almost equally famous, internationally, says: “ Intoxicants are absolutely of no use whatever in training. They take away stamina, and make one unfit for strenuous gaiiies.” When the Australian cricketers played in England recently it was a subject for remark by the press that 12 out of the 15 were total abstainers from alcohol. After their victory the Evening Standard commented that lack of intoxicants did not mean lack of cheer: “ Some of the brighter spirits among the Australians dined out last night in celebration. . . . But the majority formed a happy dinner party at their hotel, and not even the momentousness of the occasion brought these very serious young men any change from their usual drinks —tea and iced water—or any departure from their early-to-bed rule. There was no mistaking their happiness, however. Even the strong, silent captain became boyishly expansive.” _ k “ The strong, silent epatain,” W. M. Woodfull, son of a Methodist preacher, is thus quoted by the Christian World, London: “ The use of alcohol deters a man from giving his best. Throughout my cricket career I have never indulged in strong drink.” The vice-captain, Arthur Richardson, is equally emphatic, saying: “ Make up your minds to leave strong drink alone. It is the downfall of thousands.” A third is Don Bradman, “ surely on his recent record the finest batsman in the world to-day.” He was a member of the Band of Hope, and his testimony is: “ Total abstinence from all alcoholic liquor is a big factor in success. The most refreshing beverage of all I find is a cup of tea. Alcohol must necessarily interfere with one’s condition by reducing one’s powers in every direction; so my advice to boys is to leave strong drink alone at all times.” Other famous cricketers might be quoted, as, for instance, C. G. Macartney, one of the most brilliant of all cricket players, who has said: “I won my way to first-class cricket in Australia at the age of 20, and have maintained my place for 17 years, and I owe this measure of success largely to the fact that I have always been a total abstainer.” Arthur Mailey is equally convincing: “If a boy wishes to excel in any branch of sport, it is necessary that he should be absolutely lit, mentally and physically. It is therefore imperative that he should abstain from all alcoholic liquors.” Susanne Lenglen says: “ I drink no wine or alcoholic drinks of any kind,” and Big Bill Tilden, Helen Wills, and other tennis champions agree. Archie Gompston, the English golfer, says: “A man who drinks cannot train like a man who does not,” and he is echoed by other golfers. And so it goes, sportsmen everywhere agree with the statement of Tilden, that “alcohol affects the eye, the wind, and the judgment,” and if they are out to win they refuse to drink. —Union Signal. FOURTEEN THOUSAND MILK BOTTLES A DAY AT CONEY ISLAND. According to statistics gathered by Mrs , 11. S. Steers, chairman of the Anti-littor Commission of the Coney Island Chamber of Commerce, the pleasure seekers at Coney Island during the summer months drink an average of 14,000 bottles of milk daily. The concerns which supply milk in the metropolitan area reported that after the crowds left at night they gathered more than 700,000 milk bottles along the beach during the three months, July, August, and September, while an equal number were broken.