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Show I ; ns Tell Me, Man of Moral, tOhy ? . I, . These are no "reveries of a bachelor," and j : therefore no infringement upon the retrospections i of one Ike Marvel. But it might be worth while I for some wielder of the facile pen to undertake a t 1 discussion of the relative advantages of smoking I and drinking. I have had the necessary experi- ence for such a discussion, and in my person are represented, in measures, the virtues and vices of I both. This is equivalent to a declaration that I I am a disciple of both heaven forbid any conces- I sion that a stronger word than "disciple" should j bo justifiable. While I have nothing to say f against smoking except as to its cost it is want- ing all the glamour that gives tone and color to ! drinking. Smoking is an acquired taste and only f ! , affords enjoyment to a desire turned from a natu- h ' ral into an unnatural direction. A man might smoke himself into a state of nervous prostration, l 1 and all the while possess the keenest sense of every Wi I responsibility, care and tribulation that is racking H his very soul. But when it comes to drinking HI ! ah, that is different! Never lived a man in such W ; joyous mood that his sense of enjoyment could It I not be heightened by a reasonable indulgence in ' that which stimulates and excites. Never was ! grief so poignant, nor future so dark, nor hope so jr, remote, that the one might not be assuaged, the JEi j other lightened and the last made visible by a m ; judicious application, at reasonable intervals, of fly 1 the cheering cup or the flowing bowl or both. I Do not think me unmindful of the indignation j I that must follow any defense of drinking as a m I hiibit. Contend as they may, however, (these de- m votees of the "dry"), there is a charm associated v with drink as fleeting as a rainbow, as evanescent i j , and bright as a will o' the wisp, as imperishable I j1 as the first kiss of love or the last blessing of a ', J fond mother. No, not in drinking, itself, but in the i, ' associations, the freedom, the friendships, that lin- f ger in the mind like the fragrance of flowers, steal- m ing on the senses in some never to be forgotten r hour and spot. The quirks, the wit, the ringing ; jf, laugh, the clasp of time hands, the bright, frank f s. eye all, all quiver and thrill with a language un- j h known to the gourmand or to the salad-faced ad- s n vocates of water and cold tea. Ough, cold tea! m Jj And then think of that perennial essence of de- HSifl I light, brewed by loving hands and compounded m II to ke taste of the educated palate of a Southern i $ gentlemen! The green above the amber! Then the hesitancy, the aroma, the gentle elevation of the glasses, the courtly bow, and the "this occasion to renew the assurances of my distinguished consideration con-sideration and high personal regards," the warmth of a Southern day, the lingering, nipping, cooling aromatio delight the mint julep! Joy is all too feeble a word to give any conception of this ineffable inef-fable delight once known, never to recur, save under precisely similar conditions. Who was it declared that "bliss is beer and beer is bliss?" Be the wise man whomsoever he may, he wot whereof he spoke and I lift my hat to him. Perhaps it is as well that all further reference to smoking has been omitted. Whoever heard poet write or rhymer or sing of the joys of the smoker? True, we have so-called "smokers" this day a sort of tobacco "pink tea," where the pure air is fouled with various mixtures of the weed, and mid the intermingling fumes, heads addled and otherwise seek to reform mankind. Surely these see as through a glass darkly, and happy are the listeners if they behold with either eyes or ears. We can readily conceive what Dean Swift had in mind when, as an inducement to attend a gathering, he was shown the bill of fare, and said: "A fig for your bill of fare show me your bill of company." No bubble in the wine ever scintillated with a brilliancy greater than the nimble wit when quickened quick-ened by the life-giving fluid. Wine is like laughter laugh-ter in that It makes the wheels of nature glibber play: Dull care suppresses smooth's life's thorny way Propels the dancing current through each vein Braces the nerves corroborates the brain Moves every muscle makes one young again." The feeble never weary retailing the self-sacrificing devotion of men of parts to study men who "burn the midnight oil;" and study while still pursuing bread winning occupations the inference being that the eminence achieved by them in given directions is due to some particular habit of the great that happens to conform to the line of conduct con-duct followed by the approving one. By parity of reasoning I may claim that the subtleties of De Quincy and the mysticisms of Coleridge were the result of frequent imbibings of opiates, while those startling and wonderful poetical vagaries could only have emanated from Poo because of the depth and recurrence of his alcoholic potations. Great men are often controlled by strong appetites thej are heavy eaters and deep drinkers. Peter the Great is a case in point. While at Goldaming, Eng. land, he and a party of twenty others, ate at breakfast half a sheep, a quarter of a lamb, ten pullets, twelve chickens, seven dozen eggs, salad in proportion, and drank three quarts of bandy and six quarts of mulled wine. At dinner on the same day the party consumed sixty pounds of rib3 of beef, three-quarters of lamb, a shoulder and a loin of veal, one sheep weighing fifty-six pounds, eight pullets, eight rabbits and drank thirty quarts of sack and one dozen quarts of claret. Luther, the "solitary monk that shook the world" was a hearty eater and he frequently lubricated his digestive di-gestive apparatus with Rhine wine and Forgan beer the lager bier of his day and he did not stint himself either. All readers know the wits and worthies of old England made them selves glorious on their spiced sack and other fragrant fra-grant potations. Byrons inclination to strong drink is recalled by all who read of him; while Burns ah, what may not be said of Burns? "Rare Ben" Johnson had such an inordinate love of canary can-ary wine that he was known as the "canary bird." But why prolong? Shall we not say of all these that the genius they displayed and which marked theirs as great among the peerless names of all ages, was the result of close acquaintance with the particular potations of the various times in which they lived all of which potations are now unhappily unhap-pily and brutally funded in the general terra of "strong drinks" or "alcoholic beverages." From Noah down, men have gotten befuddled by a too frcjuent obeisance to those stimulating beverages which in various forms, push away from the fair face of heaven the clouds, pour the radiant sun shine into dark hearts, free man from toil, lift him to the estate of gods, fill him with untold powers, exalt his ideals, people his world with men who should be real and women who are true and beautiful, beau-tiful, and which panoply this "image of God" with all that makes father, brother, friend, hero! But I'm not going to claim that the gratification gratifica-tion of varied appetites are necessary to the achieving of an enduring fame, any more than I am prepared to concede that devotion to study will make great one whom nature created a dullard. dul-lard. I've heard sanctimonious, long-faced indi- (Continued on page 13.) I (Continued from paye 6.) viduals, claiming to speak in the name of the Almighty, Al-mighty, inveigh against what they were pleased to call "intemperance," yet who would leave the pulpit and forthwith gormandize like any hog. Sweet is repentance and only those who are recovering from a protracted over-indulgence in the cup which cheers and inebriates know the sincerity sin-cerity and depth of such repentence. It is complete, com-plete, abysmal. Wherefore, since the efforts of the lugubrious is to bring to repentance those who do not walk with them, they should rejoice that any man inclines in a direction that will, sooner or later, bring him to the most abject repentance or that deeper degree of contrition familiarly and unfeelingly designated REMORSE. Your ancient knew all this. Paul knew the value of wine when he commended it to Timothy for his "stomach's sake" and his "oft infirmities." Christ turned the water into wine, and there are churches which command the use of wine for communal purposes that it may be drank in memory mem-ory of the blood shed for mankind. In all ages, among all people's, tribute is paid to the efficacy of stimulants as a friend of man in sickness, in . tribulation, in joy and in death. It has ever been so; in measure, it will ever be so, despite the whines of the witless and the lugubrations of the sad-faced dogs who, with sanctimonious mein and verbal philaceries, proclaim today, as he did of old, to the imbiber: "I am holier than thou." An old chap named Horace, not a drunkard, yet recognized as something of a poet in his day, turned on the class referred to. I've taken the liberty lib-erty of spoiling his fine Latin lines by turning them into what in my vanity, I have dared to call a song. Listen to my lay: Tell Me, Man of Morals, Why? There's not a bud that 'scents the air, And blushes fresh with virgin hue, That does not owe its beauty rare To drinking deep the glist'ning dew. There's not a rose laughs in the morn With opened petals no, not ont That will not swear its smiles are born From drinking up the fiery sun. CHORUS. Then drink, good friends, for death is nigh! Fill every glass and lift it high! Why should all nature drink but I? Why, man of morals? Tell me why? The bursting seas drink rivers up; The thirsty earth drinks up the rain; At night the stars drink up the sun, The next night gap for drink again. And then the sun drinks up the sea, His burnished face all seamed with scars. And never a day will there be He drinks not up both moon and stars. CHORUS. One truth from nature must appear To all who stop and calmly think They know it best who've paid most dear All things that live must live by drink, And so the wise will wisely quaff To all the good that may be found; The joy of life is still to laugh And drink eternal health all round. CHORUS. R. W. S. |