True, no hard and fast rules are laid down, but a little sanctified
common sense will dictate to us how to make fast-days a reality, by some
simple acts of self-denial.

Our last thought is one of intense practical importance--our attitude at
the present moment towards strong drink.

Lord Kitchener and the Archbishop of Canterbury have both on several
occasions called the attention of the nation to the terrible evils
arising from the unhappy custom of treating soldiers to strong drink.

_Punch_, always on the side of morality and rightness, has dealt
with it in the following trenchant fashion:--

TO A FALSE PATRIOT

He came obedient to the Call;
He might have shirked, like half his mates
Who, while their comrades fight and fall,
Still go to swell the football gates.

And you, a patriot in your prime,
You waved a flag above his head,
And hoped he'd have a high old time,
And slapped him on the back, and said:

"You'll show 'em what we British are!
Give us your hand, old pal, to shake";
And took him round from bar to bar
And made him drunk--for England's sake.

That's how you helped him. Yesterday
Clear-eyed and earnest, keen and hard,
He held himself the soldier's way--
And now they've got him under guard.

That doesn't hurt you; you're all right;
Your easy conscience takes no blame;
But he, poor boy, with morning's light,
He eats his heart out, sick with shame.

What's that to you? You understand
Nothing of all his bitter pain;
You have no regiment to brand;
You have no uniform to stain;

No vow of service to abuse;
No pledge to King and country due;
But he has something dear to lose,
And he has lost it--thanks to you.[1]

[Footnote 1: O.S. in _Punch_, November 4th, 1914. By kind
permission of the Proprietors.]

A man who had so distinguished himself at the front as to be mentioned
in a despatch came home slightly wounded. In less than twenty-four hours
he was in a cell at a police station, and the next day fined forty
shillings. Oh! the pathetic pity of it. That man got into trouble
through the exhibition of one of the purest and best features of our
human nature, the desire to show kindness. In their well-intentioned
ignorance this man's friends--yes, they were real friends--knew of only
one way of displaying friendliness--they gave him liquor.

I am not going to blame them, nor him entirely; I am goin