The Truths About Alcohol

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 151, 1 June 1886, Page 3

The Truths About Alcohol

Joseph Cook, speaking recently in New York, says:— "The truths about alcohol are now so well known that, you can't got a life assurance company anywhere to put you, it' you are a mo-ierationist, into the saoie class as a total abstainer. There may be those here who think that liquor drank in moderatioa is hurmless ; there may be others who think that the doe* trine of uncompromising total abstinence is an insult to the memory of Christ. But you vrill find that the life assurance companies do not agree with yon. Fanaticism you saj again ? This is not fanaticism, but the outcome of conservative, or cold* blooded commercial experience. As the nineteenth century draws to an end so much light is being poured upon this question of moderation v. total abstinence that any man who prefers the former as the rale ok individual conduct must be pronounced benighted. For my part, although I greatly reverence the societies which have the double pledge, I would blush to recommend to anyone a less extreme tendency in the matter of intoxicants than the fourteen legislatures have put themselves on record as reoomineudfng to the children. And the Churches should blush to drop below the htandard of fcexfc-books taught in the schools. I hold that it is time for the platform and the Church to unite with the parlour and the school in bringing society up to the level established by the liFe assurance companies and the fourteen States Legislatures. . . . The Queen of Madagascar refuses to give license for any price for the sale of liquor within her dominions ; and I would ruther have that noble Queen for my political leader, so far as the temperance question is concerned, than several ot the religious newspapers that are published in this city."

Mr Lnbouchere, in Truth says : 'I ro« ceive a good many anonymous letter?, some complimentary, most, however. • the reverse. Amongst the latter, the following is amusing? and is not wanting in cleverness;^-' sTou call yourself a Badi* cal. Does your definition of the term agree with mine P H-a-d-i-c-a-i-. Take away the letters * liar,* and you are left with ' cad.' A radic.il, therefore, iB composed of a liar and a cad.' Speaking at a Socialist meetmjj in London recently, Mr Champion said that *' even with a prosecution hanging over his head he did not hesitate to say that if he thought the miserable system under which they now lived, with all its attendant horrors, could be got rid of by cutting the throats of the one and a quarter million land owners who took so much more than their share of the country, he would cut their throats with his own hand if he were able at that very mmute. He would, so help him Heaven." Truth says : —Lord Dupplin is another loss to society. * Duppy' was cheery and good natured. He always managed, with no apparent- means, to keep " his head I above water and to enjoy the fat of the 1 land. I remember some years ago coming i across him in \V«stmin«ter Hall. What are you doing her* P' I ankod. ' Well' he said, 'I am a co* in a divorce suit, and I am going t<> be culled n* a witness, * lathe charge, true?' I asictid. 'That,' he replied. Vis my difficulty. I really cannot remember whether it is true or not.' I Felt utterly dumb- founded at this magnificent forgetfulness i "Puff," writing ia the Press on the Russian cruiser's visit to.- Wellington, «ay*—" An enemy H Not a bit of it! Morely a friendly visitor! She's much moro afraid of us than wo are of her ! I believe there was groat oonsturnation on board whvn.thejr saw the Ellen Ballance coming off 'jwlth Whitmore m full flic ! Th«ught?he was coming to hang the captain from the yard arm and tako the officers and crew prisoners ! Greatly relieved when they found he was'n't half a bad little chap and .that his uniform was the most alarming part of him ! I hope Whitmore was cir.il to the Russians ! Oh, most affable ! He speaks Russ like a native ! A uative of where ? A native of New Zealand of course! Spoke Maori with his usual fluency 1 What did the Eu»sians think of thatP Oh, they wore delighted! Maori's the only language they don't know, and vow they're going to learn it !