CRUSAIE AGAINST ABSINTHE. ——«

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8248, 22 February 1905, Page 2

CRUSAIE AGAINST ABSINTHE. — — «

SCOTCH CLERGYMAN'S SERMONS IN PARIS CAFES. The minister of a Highland parish, now on a Continental holiday, is turning his stay in Paris to account by telling the French what he thinks of their predilection for absinthe. He passes his time in the lower-class -cafes, and, in excellenb French, preaches extempore sermons on the evil effects of wormwood, which, he assures his hearers, must inevitably drag France to perdition unless its use be speedily discontinued. He is generally listened to with respect, he says, though so far he admits he has made but few converts. The clergyman means to continue the crusade in Brussels and Antwerp before returning home. He absolutely declines to reveal his identity, declaring that his mission is not intended for advertisement, but mentioned that he took his degree at Cambridge, and was brought up in the doctrines of the Church of England, from which ne seceded some years ago. " I have good reason," he said, " for believing that at least seven men of the working classes in Paris will never again touch a drop of absinthe." As he spoke the words his face lit up with .•jubilation. In , his own phraseology, he is " attempting to rescue the victims of absinthe-drinking from that deadly combination of noxious urugs, which, slowly though surely, is driving them to perdition." " God gave France the means of producing good, sound, wholesome wine, such as one reads of in the Bible," he tells his listeners. He is not a total abstainer, and believes in teetotalism only in cases where moderation is found to be impossible.