erests in hundreds
of different ways that we would never dream of confiding to men who
were regarded as intemperate. Is it not fair to conclude, knowing as we
do how a glass of wine too much will confuse the brain and obscure the
judgment, that society in trusting its great army of moderate drinkers
is suffering loss far beyond anything we imagine? A doctor loses his
patient, a lawyer his case, an engineer wrecks his ship or train, an
agent hurts his principal by a loose or bad bargain, and all because
the head had lost for a brief space its normal clearness.

"Men hurt themselves through moderate drinking in thousands of ways,"
continued Mr. Carlton. "We have but to think for a moment to see this.
Many a fatal document has been signed, many a disastrous contract made,
many a ruinous bargain consummated, which but for the glass of wine
taken at the wrong moment would have been rejected. Men under the
excitement of drink often enter into the unwise schemes of designing
men only to lose heavily, and sometimes to encounter ruin. The gambler
entices his victim to drink, while he keeps his own head clear. He
knows the confusing quality of wine."

"You make out rather a strong case," said Doctor Hillhouse.

"Too strong, do you think?"

"Perhaps not. Looking at the thing through your eyes, Mr. Carlton,
moderate drinking is an evil of great magnitude."

"It is assuredly, and far greater, as I have said, than is generally
supposed. The children of this world are very wise, and some of them, I
am sorry to add, very unscrupulous in gaining their ends. They know the
power of all the agencies that are around them, and do not scruple to
make use of whatever comes to their hand. Three or four capitalists are
invited to meet at a gentleman's house to consider some proposition he
has to lay before them. They are liberally supplied with wine, and
drink without a lurking suspicion of what the service of good wine
means. They see in it only the common hospitality of the day, and fail
to notice that one or two of the company never empty their glasses. On
the next day these men will most likely feel some doubt as to the
prudence of certain large subscriptions made on the previous afternoon
or evening, and wonder how they could have been so infatuated as to put
money into a scheme that promised little beyond a permanent investment.

"If," added Mr. Carlton, "we could come at any proximate estimate of
the loss which falls upon society in