Page 6 Advertisements Column 1

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 183, 5 May 1925, Page 6

UNCHAINING THE BRUTE. "That new baby of yours didn’t happen to be born with gills, did it?” said Thompson to Porter the other night. /‘With what!” said Porter, in indignant astonishment. “Gills. I said. Don’t yon know that Science declares that every human baby is a fish, a reptile, and a little monkey before it is born as we know it ?” “Rats,” said the outraged Porter, "speak for your own.” “True, all the same.. babies have been born with gills, which, science says proves the animal stages we pass through before we see the light.” ■“Seems to me,” retorted Porter, "there should be more proof than that, though I’ll grant there’s the brute in most of us.” “You’re right there, and it doesn’t take much to unchain the brute in some cases,’* said Thompson. “Here’s an instance: “A family group—mother sitting with six months’ old baby on her knee, two little tots playing around—nice home, professional people. There’s just a tense air that makes you feel all is not as it should be. “Door opens, father comes in, quickwords pass. IJc strides forward and seizes the little baby. The mother tries to take it from him: he grasps her arm, twists it till it nearly breaks; she has to let go. Then, the baby is let fall, and its head strikes the floor. Follows the wailing of the little one, the mother’s sobs as she picks the tiny tot up, and gathering the other two to her, swiftly shepherds them to the basement of the house and locks the door on the inside. “They stopped in the basement all night—have done it often; and why? Because the brute was unchained in that otherwise good husband.” “Was he mad, or something?” interjected Porter. “Oh, no, just drunk, not beastly drunk, or anything—plain drunk. Never arrested, never been in court—his wife won’t complain to the police. Just one of hundreds who make hell on earth of what should be home for wives and kiddies. “Something should be done to that kind of a beast,” said Porter, with energy. Porter is a decent sort, ven' fond of his home. “Too true.” replied Thompson “Best thing is to keep the drink away from them. They would thank you for that. But so long as 'moderates’ keep the liquor traffic here those men will go on being tempted and fall, and those wives and children will be‘ kept in hell on earth.” "A'fter all, they are the minority,’ interjected Harding. “You’d be surprised to know how many hundreds of cases are on record that never get into court. What I’ve just been telling von is a true story of New Zealand life.” replied Thompson. . "After all,” said Porter, “you’d jump —any of us would jump into the harbour to save a kiddie from drowning—anv kiddie. We’d risk our lives for .that. Whv should.we not sacrifice our gflrink, that’s a doubtful luxury -for fthe sake of all these suffering kiddies, ‘nml vote that liquor traffic out ? i are 4000 children now maintained by the State because drink got their parents.”— Advt.