Temperance Items

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 199, 7 September 1901, Page 1

Temperance Items

(ADVERTISES! KST.]

(Published by arrangement.) THE NEW BISHOP OF LONDON. DR. WINKINGTON-INGRAM. Dr. n-Ingnm. the ne# Bishop of London, is not only a keen temperance worker, hut takes even greater interest tn social topics than ii Strictly ecclesiastical qnes ions. The upnointm 'nt seems a good bn and he has qualified hinise'f for the post by hi« act vities as Bishop of Stepney*, He has racily written some of hi? experience* in the East End. He has seed thorn under all conditions and at aA hours, and has written shrewdly and humorously, as. for instance, in. the following ; *‘Tn great cities you have often t 6 learn (he ’* <" and door trick.” It is ruination to the boot, and sometimes hurts the too, but it consists in rapidly but quietly parsing the foot inside the mora -n* the door is opened, in order t 6 se'T.re a few minutes’ parley.” !‘ Ti turn a wheel for ten or fo'u teed hou--R a day, to make the same part of a hoot from M mlav imrnng to, at any rife, mid-day oh Saturday—this cannot satisfy an immortal spirit. We need not wonder, then, that we find gambling •and betting rampant in great cities ” “ We talk sometimes of men living ah animal 'ife, but the whole point about it is that it is not an animal life. ‘ Th% life you are living,’ said a fervent orato'r once to a group in a public-house, ‘ is the life of a pig,’ ‘ Steady,’ said a grey!" haired old man, ‘that’s rather hard.'* '* Rather hard on the pig,’ he dryly continued. ‘ What pig ever takes tod much wash or knocks about his so# when he gets home ? ’ ”

“ We are not facing scientifically drink and gambling unless we recognise in them signs that wo are more than more animals.”

What he has seen in great cities aM the insight he has gained into thi problems that perplex has ted to hie insistence upon* the necessity of social work.

“ Social work must form part of th'i work of every clergyman. It is impossible to raise Lazarus until we have taken away the r one. If a man is the slave to strong drink, is he likely to in a fit state to come to the Holy Commnn ou ?

“ If a man lives in a single room vri'tX a wife and five children, and has nowherd else to go to of an evening, is he less c£ more likely to be driven into a publichouse?' 1

“ Let us begin with the drains. Doh’t tell me that it is not a parson’s wort tA aftend to the drains of his district; il hot, why did Providence gift him with a nose !"

“ Then-, again, we come to bpeh spaces. Then there is thrift, and there is that speci-d form of social work which tikes the form of clubi—boys’ clubs} very rough lads’ clubs, and men’s clubs* Your club must be an effective * cut out * of the public-houses which flame at corner.”

“ There is no good in wasting yoS r breath in abasing publicans. Devoid your energies to cutting them;” “ I was visiting in the Londort Hoi l pital once, and found myself sitting hf the aide of a broken legged publican. When he heard who I was he asked md ab dt the welfare of several of our club members. I asked him how he knei£ them. ‘ Oh,’ he said, ‘ they were regulaf customers of mine before they joined your club. I had a public-house dowA your way.’ ‘Are you there still?’ 1 asked. * No, sir ; I’ve moved further off”’