“SNOWY” BAKER ON ABSTINENCE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1156, 9 October 1913, Page 4

“SNOWY” BAKER ON ABSTINENCE.

“As proof of the efficacy of abstinence,’’ wrote Mr R. 1,. Baker, proprietor of the Sydney Stadium, in a paper read before the Total Abstinence Society in Sydney recently, “I beg to relate a number of instances in sport, wherein I have been closely associated. For my own part, I have never, throughout all my years of strenuous athletics, taken one single drop of alcoholic drink. It is a very remarkable thing, and I don’t care where you pick your man from, there was never a champion in any sport who was a drinker, be it swimming, boxing, football or anything else. You Cannot possibly succeed unless you leave drink alone. In boxing, I find that the successful ringman is invariably an abstainer. The overwhelming factor which brings about the downfall of many young athletes, is the apparent presence of good fellowship. While you are on the pinnacle of fame, yon will meet heaps of people who all want you to have a drink with them, but it really is the iusinceresl form of flattery. As scon as you are going to be a good fellow with everyone, your career is very limited. The successful man in spott is the man who has a will which will not be dictated to ; he sets foith his mode of living and abides by it. Really it is the only way in which one can hope for success, be it at business or sport.’’