" DOWN CLASSES."
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]
Ste,—In a footnote to a letter signed " An Officer in the Front Line " (published in your issue of the 10th inst.) you state inter alba: " In the Arctic and Antarctic no intoxicants are allowed. They are short cuts to frostbites and death from failure of bodily heat. Alcohol sends the body temperature down, not up. Hot milk and sugar, not rum or whisky, are the best stimulants in very cold weather." I firmly believe that fifty per cent. of the people who drink between meals, which is practically the only form of drinking to-day which is seriously harmful, do so either from habit, or cowardice, or in the sincere belief that it will keep the cold out, or in some other way " do me good." The intense desire for companionship and good fellowship inherent in us all can only be indulged in by the vast majority in the public-house, and accompanied by " a drink." Just look in at one of the Y.M.C.A. huts any evening. You will see hundreds of men perfectly happy—playing billiards, smoking cigarettes, reading newspapers, or writing letters, and no alcohol. Yet do not doubt that if alcohol were suddenly to become available in all Y.M.C.A. huts, and Treating allowed, there would not be an enormous consumption of it. It requires much moral courage, when asked
Well, what shall it be? " to say " No thanks "—and a young soldier, invited to "take a glass," not only cannot refuse, but, where the No-treating Order does not run, is bound by cast-iron ritual to return the compliment. I wish your little footnote could be posted up on every wall, and that in the Great Future every public-house could be permitted to fit itself up to resemble a Y.M.C.A. but of to-day. Many a licensed house would be glad to take the money which goes into the till of the humblest hut. I may add that I am not a " teetotaler." or a so-called " temperance advocate."—I am, Sir, &c., R. T. WATKIN WILLIAMS.
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