"An experience like this set me to thinking. If, I said to myself, a
man uses wine, beer or spirits habitually, is there no danger that at
some time when great interests, or even life itself, may be at stake, a
glass too much may obscure his clear intellect and make him the
instrument of loss or disaster? I pursued the subject, and as I did so
was led to this conclusion--that society really suffers more, from what
is called moderate drinking than it does from out-and-out drunkenness."

"Few will agree with you in that conclusion," returned Doctor Hillhouse.

"On the contrary," replied Mr. Carlton, "I think that most people,
after looking at the subject from the right standpoint, will see it as
I do."

"Men who take a glass of wine at dinner and drink with a friend
occasionally," remarked Doctor Hillhouse, "are not given to idleness,
waste of property and abuse and neglect of their families, as we find
to be the case with common drunkards. They don't fill our prisons and
almshouses. Their wives and children do not go to swell the great army
of beggars, paupers and criminals. I fear, my friend, that you are
looking through the wrong end of your glass."

"No; my glass is all right. The number of drunken men and women in the
land is small compared to the number who drink moderately, and very few
of them are to be found in places of trust or responsibility. As soon
as a man is known to be a drunkard society puts a mark on him and sets
him aside. If he is a physician, health and life are no longer
entrusted to his care; if a lawyer, no man will give an important case
into his hands. A ship-owner will not trust him with his vessel, though
a more skilled navigator cannot be found; and he may be the best
engineer in the land, yet will no railroad or steamship company trust
him with life and property. So everywhere the drunkard is ignored.
Society will not trust him, and he is limited in his power to do harm.

"Not so with your moderate drinkers. They fill our highest places and
we commit to their care our best and dearest interests. We put the
drunkard aside because we know he cannot be trusted, and give to
moderate drinkers, a sad percentage of whom are on the way to
drunkenness, our unwavering confidence. They sail our ships, they drive
our engines, they make and execute our laws, they take our lives in
their hands as doctors and surgeons; we trust them to defend or
maintain our legal rights, we confide to them our int