SOME SOUND ARGUMENTS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 662, 16 October 1902, Page 20

SOME SOUND ARGUMENTS.

(From the “ Blathwayt ” Correspondence.) I object to total abstinence, as it is generally preached, for many reasons. In the first place, it is quite the wrong method to adopt with the class of persons of whom I write. 'They would never stand the restrictions these good people would fain - enforce, and they are, as a rule, too clear-minded not to®see through the fallacy of the total abstinence arguments. I don’t want to abstain from alcoholic refreshment in reason, and why should I, who can say “ No ” suffer for a man who is either too weak-minded or too selfindulgent to say it and act up to it. Why should I encourage in him the sin of selfishness ? Why should I do evil that good may come ? A moderate drinker, listening to the senseless tirades, the bigoted intolerance and narrow-mindedness, the illogical arguments, and the childish anecdotes of some typical total abstainers, turned to me once and said, “ I believe that three weeks of such drivel as this would drive me in despair into a drunkard’s grave. The general consensus of medical opinion and the common sense of the community regard wine, beer and spirits as blessings when taken in moderation, just as much as beef or mutton, or tobacco, when they are consumed in the strict moderation that the dictates of health demand, are blessings to humanity. I was once arguing with a bitter teetotaller, and I said to him : .

“ Well, but suppose I were taken ill, with heart failure,* in your house, and I asked you for some brandy, what would you do ?” . t “I should certainly refuse it,” he replied. • “ I thank you very much,” I answered. “ I don’t mind you dying for your principles, but I certainly refuse to die Bor them, too.” Two years ago, at a great assembly of Christian Endeavourers, I tried to obtain a glass of brandy for a poor, fainting woman. It was refused me by the brutal fanatic to whom I applied for it. “ But she may die,” said I. “ Better that than that she “should drink the accursed stuff.” This common sense method of discussing a great social evil is, I know, anathema-maranatha to the fanatic, but I often think the calm gallianism of the man of the world is, in the end, as efficacious as the well-meant, but hopelessly fanatic and unreasoning enthusiasm of the total abstainer, and it is not nearly so liable to defeat its own ends.