RUDYARD KIPLING, PROHIBITIONIST.

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 61, 5 December 1919, Page 3

RUDYARD KIPLING, PROHIBITIONIST.

(Published by Arrangement,) The following incident (writes a correspondent) is related by Rudyard Kipling lo explain why he became a pronibitionisf:—

"Tho other sight of the evening waß a horror. The little tragedy played itself nut at a neighbouring table iv'liero i two very young women were sitting. It ; did not strike me till very late in tho evening tihat the pimply young reprobates were making the girls drunk. They gave thom red wine, and then white, and the voices roso slightly with tho maidens' cheek flushes. I watched, yish* ing to stay, and the youths drank till their speech thickened and tluir eyeballs grew watery- It was sickening'to see, because I know what was going to happen. My friend eyed the group and said: 'Maybe tihey are tho children of respcctnblo parents? I hardly think, though, they'd be allowed out without any butter escort than, these boys, and yet tho place is a placo where everybody comes. They may be.' And" they were, nil four, children of sixteen and seventeen. Then, recanting previous opinions, I became a prohibitionist. Better, it is that a man should go without his beer in public places, and content himself with swearing at tho narrowmindedness of tho majority; better it is to poison tho inside with very vilo temperance drinks, and to buy lager furtively at back doors, tihan to bring temptation to tie lips of young , fools fiiioli as the four I had seen. I understand now why tho preachers rage against the drink. I have said, 'There is no harm in it if taken moderately,' yot my. own demand for beer helped directly to send thoso two girls reeling down tho dark streets to—God olone knows whafi end."