If a man asks for drink he knows quite well what he is
doing, and if he takes too much it is because of some morbid taint or
unlucky weakness.
Take away the taint, and strengthen the weakness; but do not pour
blackguard and unfair abuse on business men who are in no way answerable
for human frailty.
When I hear (as I often do) some flabby boozer whining and ascribing his
trouble to the drinkshop, I despise him. Who took him to the drinkshop?
Was it not to please himself that he went? Did he care for any other
being's gratification but his own when he slipped the alcohol down his
throat? Yet he appeals for pity. I reckon that I know England and
Scotland as well as most commercial travellers, and I have been
compelled to depend for my comfort and well-being on the men whom some
of the Alliance folk call pariahs. In all my experience I have come
across less than a dozen men whom I should imagine to rank among the
shady division. I should be a liar if I said that many public-houses are
highly moral and useful institutions; but the abuses are due to the rank
faults of human nature, and not to the class of traders who are
alternately described as venal sycophants or robbers.
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