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New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 930, 2 January 1908, Page 20

The game of billiards was invented by a Frenchman named Devigne, in 1572. * * * * Gin' was so cheap in 1735 that “ the people'could intoxicate themselves for one ... penny.'”. . - ■> . (. : ♦' » 1"... In the, Wellington Police Court recently, William Willis was remanded on a charge of having stolen a case of whisky-, valued' at £3, the property of Adolphus Lutz. The young man who left the Invercargill district while a charge of procuring liquor while prohibited was pending against him, was arrested at Clinton and brought 'before Mr McCarthy, S.M., and was fined £5 and costs. - * * * * English ale it seems, can work wonders, like English pluck. The; day that the Lusitania registered 608 miles, the officers gave a bottle of ale to each of the hot firemen as a kind of perishable token of appreciation. Next day the Lusitania broke all records, making 617 knots. That night the firemen got no ale. - Next day the Lusitania only recorded 600 miles. . A big tobacco deal has been completed recently in America; sixteen million pounds of tobacco, and a million and' >a-. half dollars in money is involved. The price paid being the highest since the r Civil War. , * * ® * The audience of a ’.recent concert' at Wanganui were convinced at, an unrehearsed'incident which; (occurred during the, .singing of the duet “Long Ago.” The singers had just come to the passage,. “ soft and. low,” when someone in the --wingSj evidently , feeling the j oppressive heat, endeavoured to softly 'remove a ''fcork, but the hot weather had evidently ' : had ’its'! effect on the ‘ contents,' for a aisj iinct pop ” /tye,; heard all over the

hall. The audience felt warmer than ever. From the latest agricultural statistics we learn that the acreage laid down in barley for this season shows an increase of, 4041 "acres., , The steady growth, of the beer trade in the Dominion being no doubt responsible for this increased area.

The case of Mr/Patrick Quinlan versus Messrs Swan and Co., was again before the Judge at the Supreme Court recently ; when certain law points were argued. His Honor further reserved judgment on the points raised.

Thos. Vaughan, who was arrested in Gisborne recently for non-payment of finqs amounting to’ ;£6o for sly-grog selling in the King Country, was sent to prison for three < months. "

Mr and Mrs- King-, of the Stratford Lodge Hotel, had a narrow escape from a serious accident at Hastings the other day. A horse he was driving was startled by the Salvation Army band, and bolted, the vehicle swerving to pass a man standing on the road, col'ided with a verandah post. Fortunately both Mr and Mrs King escaped with a severe shaking.

Number one on the roll of inebriates, committed to the Bell’s Island Home, arrived recently from the South, and it is authoritively stated, strange though it ,mp.y.‘ appear, that, he has been committed from the -prohibition district of Invercargill.';., -Prohibition, it' is '-claimed, had done many, things for the districts in which it has obtained a footing ; but the unenviable-, distinction of-.-a. prohibition district producing the first, confirmed inebriate, gives one something to ponder over. , . ; , :

A lad on his way to school at Sydney the other day inadvertently took the wrong bag on leaving the tram, and on arrival at school found in his satchel not books, rulers, etc., but bank notes to the value of £5OO. A clerk in a city office received a bigger shock on reaching his destination. Fortunately he was able to trace the boy and the mater was soon righted.

An Irishman who had just united with the Catholic Church in a small town was careless enough to let the priest- catch him coming out of a saloon - with a jug under his arm. The priest waited for him to come by and said : ‘‘ Pai, what is it you have in that jug?” “ Whisky, sor,” answered Pat. "Whom does it belong to?” asked the good man. “To me and me brudder Moike, sor..” “Well, say, Pat, pour yours out, and be a good man.” I can’t, sor; mine’s, on the bottom,” answered Pat. .

Card-playing was first introduced into England in the year 1350. * * *

■The law relating to the signing for liquor intended to go into prohibited areas, got two young rpep into trouble at Invercargill recently when Mr McCarthy,- S.M., fined thern 1 £3 and costs, one for procuring liquor aF the brewery depot without giving his name, and also the name of the person for whom the liquor was intended, the other being fined for assisting to procure the liquor. The liquor was for -a, : ; prohibited person. The first man got two gallons of beer, and signed the name of the latter, while the two assisted the prohibited person, fzho supplied /the money, to drink the beer. The prohibited person was charged, but did not appear, and the police stated ,he had -left the district. A 'warrant was' issued for his arrest. . sh * * =>

’ Boarding-house keepers should take a - t warning from the-.-following incident, says the “ Rotorua Times.” One morning, at 5 a.m., a young _lady who had gone to bed on Sunday night, leaving the bedroom blind up, was awakened by the " 'heat of the sun’s rays, and got up to ■ tife blind. On the dressing-table

was a caraffe of water, near which was a book. Judge of her surprise on finding that the caraffe had acted as a burning glass, and that the leaves of the book were smoking and ready to burst into a blaze- The moral is :Do not leave whacan act as burning glasses.

Excellent business is reported from all the houses—quite a record Christmas. In spite of the extreme hotel accommodation comprised in the Auckland hotels, most of them had to announce to many weary 'wayfarers “ Very sorry, full up.”

No more simple life for me, my dear. I’ve been roughing it in a tiny cottage for two months, and my second footman away ill nearly the whole time.”—Punch.

At Dunedin recently three persons, one of whom was prohibited, were fined for having been illegally on the premises of the Grand Pacific Hotel on a Sunday afternoon.

Dargaville, on the Northern Wairoa, is a fairly busy little town, and is making steady progress. There is a movement on foot at the present time to form the township into a borough, which, if successful, will no doubt 7 ead to improvements in the way of sanitation and a water supply. There are two hotels in the place, both of which do a large business. The Northern Wairoa Hotel is an exceedingly well-conducted house, being now under the proprietorship of Mr W. Montgomery, who makes a most capable and obliging host. There is no doubt that the travelling public are being better catered for as each succeeding year passes by. This is very noticeable in the way of hotel and boarding-house accommodat on. Many an out-of-date hotel has, of recent years, been replaced by a modern structure, with every convenience and everything possible done to add to the comfort of the public. This applies also to many boarding-houses. For instance at Dargaville the Railway Buffet has recently undergone considerate alterations, a large new front giving an additional 15 or 20 rooms, being now ready for the reception of visitors. The new proprietor, Mr J. Brady, is to be congratulated on the wonderful improvements he has effected since he took the house over.

ON DRINK AND CURES. (Bv Frank Morton, New Zealand.) What wish the clamour and temperance societ’es (curiously so-called) and the constant flaunting of the oriflamme of the No-License party, we are in danger of overlooking the undoubted fact that alcoholism is one of the primary curses of this civilisation. The forces arrayed against tuberculosis work strenuously, on scientific methods ; so that we are begin- . ning really to understand what a fearful menace tuberculosis is; but, with regard to alcoholism, there is much cry and little work, and this industrious shearing of swine calls for criticism as a most unprofitable business. When the good folk of the No-License party begin to advocate and fight for positive colonial prohibition, there ' will be a definite issue, and their sincerity will be made manifest. It were well, in the meantime, to dissociate al! such efforts at reform from any specialised religious movement —in the ordinary acceptation of that term. The evil is social; the appeal for remedy should be made , to the social instincts of the community. Absolutely the worst method of treating the drunkard is to preach to him. It is flat folly to give a.man a douche when he needs a tonic. Nor can you save a drunkard by assaulting- him with statistics; although that method is at present very popular. The habitual - drinker is often merely a fool; the instinctive or hereditary drunkard is generally a sick man. Neither is to be "'saved, by the tears-and-tract method. I am faily well qualified to speak on the subject of drunkenness. For many yearsM drank, ; habitually, far too much; and through all these intemperate years there - were certain weeks when intemperance leaped to convivial riot. This was

(I suppose) bad for my health; it was bad for my reputation with the mob (for whose opinions I never cared a straw); and it was bad for any professional standing of repute, so that in the end the thing became a nuisance, and I had to turn to literature for some part of my income. And this, in the result, was good, for literature proves far more interesting than journalism, and it is the lack of any vivid interest in life that most often drives the habitual drinker to his folly. The habitual drinker, you see, must not be confused with the instinctive or hereditary drunkard. The habitual drinker may not really like alcohol at all. I never liked it myself, in its commoner forms. I never could conquer the conviction for instance, that whisky and soda is an essentially nasty compound, although I have consumed oceans of it. I never truly reconciled my palate to the insuperable offence of beer. The reek of gin was always an abomination in my nostrils. Champagne, the genuine article, I could drink with pleasure ; and for still burgundy I had an extravagant fondness. But alcohol itself did not appeal to me; it was the effect of alcohol that enthralled. I was a frank pagan in a harsh, unsmiling world, a world of crude sharp angles and many noxious stews. I was beset by silly old women of both sexes, who preposterously clamoured of their alleged divine right to manage my intimate private affairs. . Some of the fussy old things were newspaper editors ; and when dire circumstances flung me into connection with any of those, there were coruscating insurrections and language that jarred the linotypes. But I protest that any manly, reasonable fellow could always lead me like a little child. Like so many of the sons of Ishmael, I am a fatuously good-tempered person. I am more responsible to kindness than a bulldog is. My first editor, Arnot Reid (whose dead name is worth more than all the living pother of the old lady editors), was a man and a brother. A man of admirable intellectual power, he had no intellectual conceit. He was more concerned to sweeten his environment than to create an atmosphere in which his personal dignity might shine. He liked men of blood and sinew, and preferred them with a spice of the devil. He was a splendidly unselfish fellow, and he never nagged. He compelled affection and and confidence, for he knew his profession in its every root and branch. I remember the only lecture he ever gave me, as well as thought it had been given but yesterday. He said, “ Of course, it’s not my affair, and you’ll be perfectly within your rights if you tell me to go to the devil. But I want to help you. You’re a little in debt, and in Asia that’s a mistake. If you’ll permit it, I’ll lend you the money to get square, and we’ll fix terms of repayment when I have time. If I were you, I’d be careful about liquor. Don’t take too much ; it’s a squalid habit. I’d stick close to the mill for a while, if I were you. If a man is to make anything of journalism, he must know simply everything about it. I’m sorry now that I never learned to set type. There ought to be stuff in you, if you dig in. I think that’s all. Oh, by the way, if you’ll tot up the amount, I might as well give you that cheque.” This was very unbusinesslike, I dare say. But Reid was an Anglo-Scot in the genial East, and he had his little ways. I had been years away from him when I got news of his; death; but after that it didn’t seem to me that the world was quite such a decent place as it had been. Meantime, I had formed theSfirink habit. In Calcutta, to start with, the p’ace was hot, and most of us did the wrong thing with a certain gusto on the housetops—which is a mistake. In Australian journalism, as I was fresh from Asia, I found many things to discourage, and many to disgust me. If a man gets sociably drunk in Asia, no other man refers to the fact. He would as soon think of twitting a cripple on his hump. But in Australia, the very greengrocer will, mount the rostrum, and get from Firstly to Fourthly before one has time to knock him off his perch. I’d no more

think of dictating to a man about his habits than I would of questioning him about his soul; and the little self-ordain-ed preachers used to ga.l me exquisitely on the raw. There is a certain rich pleasure in getting drunk as a protest against the insolence of the inordinately sober. Self-appointed temperance reformers are a slow poison to the habitual drinker, and a period of alcoholic excess seems to be the natural antidote. I wouldn’t hazard a guess as to how many times I have flown recklessly to alcohol with precisely that intention. I remember a typical instance in Hobart. A friend and I were taking a verbatim note for the parties to a suit in equity. It was a case of hard work in court all day, hard work dictating to typists all night, and varied spel.s of hard drink.ng in between to take the place of sleep. One morning we felt sore-spent, and (although the part’-es by this time owed us about £IOO each) we had no money. And the solicitors of the parties had earnestly besought the victuallers we frequented to give us no credit early in the day. Just then, by one of those fatalities that upset the best-balanced mind, we met Aiderman Hiddlestone, who talked re-igiously about our dreadful thirst and the manifest beauties of the Crystal Spring till our heads spun. So we went to his place of business, where we signed two pledge-cards; he gave us a shilling with which to get two shaves; and of the four beers we had, I’ll promise you my two were sweet. With me, the habit tapered off because I got tired of annoying my friends. And at the beginning of this year, I dropped alcohol positively; merely because I had decided that to furnish more food for cackle to the things that crawl and sting was beneath my •dignity. It was quite easy. The habitual drinker w’th any brains at all can always break the habit. My own stop is final. But the point I wish to make is that there is nothing moral about my change of habit ; I changed because I chose to change, and when once I had decided- that the change was desirable, I acted promptly on my dec.sion. I signed^no pledge, and I blew no bugle. It was my affair. I merely give these personal details as a means of illustrating my point that the habitual drinker is not -necessarily an instinctive drunkard. The habit is a folly; the instinct a disease. The two classes of drinkers are of orders quite separate and distinct. And I honestly believe that, so far as merely habitual drinkers are concerned, examp'e—the example of other habitual drinkers—has noth'ng to do with the matter. An epidemic of suicides does -not fill me with su:cidal impulses. When I see another fellow in a ditch, I don’t necessarily yearn to topple in myself. With me, the misdirected zeal of total abstainers was a constant spur to a’soholism; but the examples of other drink-

•rs always glared as a danger-signal in my path. The influence of example is exaggerated. My family was teetotal, my own people lifelong abstainers. I was taught to regard alcohot as a very dreadful thing. So that, immediately I got a loose leg, I put theory to the test of experiment. If I were a mentor of youth, I should merely point out (as often as possible) that drunkenness is a dirty habit, and horrib'y undignified. The matter was not put to me in quite that way ; but that was the consideration that told most powerfully when I came to my own decision.

And I am driven in common honesty to say a word as to the physical effects of alcohol. I drank, in moments of enthusiasm, anything and everything. I have started a nigh; on absinthe, and closed it with green chartreuse. I have oroken every ru’e of safe drinking that any drinker ever laid down. And my health, so far as I know, is, and always has been perfect. I can only speak of my own case ; but the fact remains that so far as I know, my constitution is unimpaired. I had a touch of rheumatism in Dunedin, but that was directly attributable to the cold Scots accent that hangs for ever on the place of woe. The effect of intemperance, I take it, depends very much on the constitution and circumstances of the intemperate. I have never lain awake at night to weep over my own or other people’s sins, and my work has always been congenial. It is a grave mistake to genera ise too confidently about the effect of anything. I have drunk hard for many years, and now I drink no more (if exception is made to great quantities of strong tea), and I’m prepared to back my opinion that I’m healthier than many a leading light of total abst nence.

But ins.inctive or hereditary drunkards are a class apart; probably not nearly so numerous a c ass as is commonly supposed. The virus of habitual excess is born in them and remains with them as a malignant disease. There is reason to be ieve that it can be treated by scientific methods, ana in some cases cured. In Hobart I knew, and everybody knew, two prominent men who had been treated at the Caulfield Institute at Melbourne. They went into the instution alcoholic wrecks; they emerged as saved, sane men; and their cure has stood the test of years. In these cases there is positively no doubt of the efficacy of the treatment, and in Australia there are many such cases. There are also cases where the treatment has only been effective for a time, and the patients have had relapses. I name the Caulfield Institute because it is the only place of its kind of which I have any personal knowledge. And, as against the undoubted cures effected by Science, I have never known a case of an instinctive or hereditary drunkard permanent’y cured by a temperance sermon or the smug impertinence of a mere acquaintance. It does not help the drunkard to humilitate Him, or to advertise him. It is fully time that temperance reformers, clerical and lay, got that idea into their heads. Where a man drinks habitually, it is his affair. His friends may remonstrate with him, if they are intimate enough ; but any interference on the part of outsiders is rank insolence at best. His habitual drinking may be a bad thing for his wife and family; but so would h's habitual illtemper be, and concerning the preva’ent vice of habitual ill-temper no public meetings are held, and no women’s socie-

ties are formed. And where the habitual drinker’s wife and family are concerned, the law provides fairly drastic remedies. Whenever the public meddles, otherwise, with any man’s household relationships, evil inevitably results. Easy interfer-

ence with what I have called the instinctive drinker is even more harmful. If science has proved anything in these latter years, it has proved that instinctive drinking is a disease, and that the instinctive drunkard must be classed with

the consumptive and the epileptic.. Any public action that subjects the instinctive drunkard to gratu : tous humiliation or degradation, is theretore anti-social and inhumane. . We come then, to this conclusion. Habitual drinkers may and sometimes do cease drinking to please themselves; and they may, and not infrequently do, come under religious influence, and cease drinking, with the primary object of pleasing God and saving their sou.s from hell Scientific . drink-cures are not for the merely habitual drinker; and, in point of fact, the merely habitual drinker very seldom offers himself for treatment. When he does, he is especially liable to relapses: On the other hand, I doubt that religious influence arine ever saved an instinctive drunkard.. No such case ever came within the limits of my experience, . and I have seen a good deal of religious work and enterprise. But once the class of instinctive drunkards is cured, the class of habitual drinkers will speedily become intolerably ashamed of its excess. In what is known as good society, squalid drunkenness has became a thing forbidden, and to that extent good

society has been made temperate. But this reform has been in no vital sense due to organised temperance effort- In good society men have ceased openly to make beasts of themse’ves, because the fashion of open beastliness has gone out. (To be concluded next week.