BUXTON v. KINROSS

Southern Cross, Volume 14, Issue 30, 22 September 1906, Page 10

BUXTON v. KINROSS

(To the Editor). Sir, —In your last issue I notice in your contributor Denis’s column a letter signed Andrew Kinross, largely devoted to alcohol. Mr Kinross’ views on alcohol remind me of the story about the French lexicographers’ definition of the sea-crab. They discribed it as a little red fish which swam backwards, and they submitted their definition to an English academician. He said that their definition was quite correct, with the exception that the crab was not a fish, nor did it swim, but crawled, nor was it read until it was boiled. "With these slight corrections, gentlemen, your definition will- be perfect.” Mr Kinross’ views of alcohol are just as correct as the Frenchmen’s ideas about the crab- First he says that alcohol was sent, thus treating it as a natural product, which it is not. It is a manufacture. Alcohol is not to be found in the whole realm of natural products, so alcohol is not sent. The next point is that alcohol was sent to compensate elderly people for loss of appetite and vitality. Had he said to destroy appetite and vitality he had been much nearer the truth. Alcohol is not a compensator in any sense whatever. Alcohol has no creative properties whatever in it. therefore it cannot compensate loss of vitality. To test this- point, let me take a personal application of the doctrine to Air Kinross and to myself. Air Kinross has, I suppose, been a n habitual drinker of alcoholic liquors for 50 years at least, and he still keeps whisky in his house. Now, according to his theory, he ought to be maintaining his physique and vitality to much greater degree than a man who has drank next to no alcohol for the same number of years, and for the last forty years- none at all. Such a one am I. As regardsphysique, I am heavier now than I ever was in my life. I am still strong physically and constitutionally, and my general health is as near perfect as it can well be. These are facts which my appearance fully supports. Can Air Kinross, with the help of alcohol, make a similar boast ? Does he require the waist of his trousers enlarging ? Does he require a piece letting-in In the back of his vest ? Can he show a face that is growing ffiore and more rubicund as the years roll by ? I am the subject of all these enlargements. How does Air Kinross show up on these lines ? Air Kinross speaks of pretty, smiling girls serving him with the water of"life. This is heterodoxy and a perversion of language. The water of life is not 'drawn from bottles and casks. It flows clear and crystal in the river of God, so the preacher says-. Then Air Kineoss- utters a wail of despair and says —"But, alas ! the light of other days is faded, and all their glory’s past.” The glory of the pretty, smiling girls is gone from behind beer counters, and Air Kinross will never bask in that light again. But cheer up, 'Andrew, "don’t let your spirits go down, there’s many a gal that I know well is looking ,for you in the town.”Then Air Kinross says this water of life enables him to take an optimistic view of the future.” I gather from that that Mr Kinross has- no hope of salvation except at times when whisky lifts him to the top of Alount Pisgah, and shows him the land of Beulah. Air Kinross also- says that this water of life cheers the heart and strengthens friendship. I suppose black eyes, swollen and bruised faces, torn clothes roiled in the mud, are the marks of this invigorated friendship when the water of life ha® been freely imbibed. Air Kinross bemoans the lack of sources of inspiration to the poetic muse. I thought that with the true poet the inspiration rushed in and created the occasion likye the spirit that rushed upon Samson when he tore up the gates of Gaza and carried them to the top of the hill. But it would be as impious for me to dogmatise here as it would be to follow Mr Kinross to the top of Mount Pisgah in his devotions. Then Mr Kinross refers to the happy circumstances which environed the poet Burns as compared to his own environment. Burns, he says, was esteemed more than kink, warrior, or statesman, while his own lot has been east among people who would rather spend 3d on a) long beer than on a hook of poetry. I gather from that that Mr Kinross puts

poetry before alcohol, that is to say, he puts the alcohol in first, and then the poetry comes, like silver refined in a crucible heated with alcohol. —I am, etc. Sept. 15. T. BUXTOhT.