dram-shop temptin'
poor human nater, and the greed of the world, and the cowardice and
indifference of the Church of Christ. Enough money is squandered for
stuff that degrades and destroys to feed and clothe all the hungry and
naked children of the world."

"Oh," sez Miss Meechim, "I don't believe all this talk and clamor
about prohibition. My people all drank genteelly, and though of course
it was drink that led to the agony and divorces of three of my
sisters, and my father's first downfall, yet I have always considered
that moderate drinking was genteel. Our family physician always drank
genteel, and our clergyman always kept it in his wine cellar, and if
people would only exert self control and drink genteel, there would be
no danger."

"How duz Robert Strong feel about it?" sez I.

"Oh, he is a fanatic on the subject; he won't employ a man who drinks
at all. He says that the city he is founding is a City of Justice, and
it is not just for one member of a family to do anything to endanger
the safety and happiness of the rest; so on that ground alone he
wouldn't brook any drinking in his model city. There are no very rich
ones there, and absolutely no poor ones; he is completely obliterating
the barriers that always have, and I believe always should exist
between the rich and the poor. Sez I, 'Robert, you are sacrilegiously
setting aside the Saviour's words, "the poor ye shall always have with
you."'

"And he said there was another verse that our Lord incorporated in his
teachings and the whole of his life-work, that he was trying to carry
out: 'Do unto others as ye would have them to do unto you.' He said
that love and justice was the foundation and cap-stone of our
Saviour's life and work and he was trying in his weak way to carry
them out in his own life and work. Robert talked well," sez she, "and
I must confess that to the outward eye his City of Justice is in a
happy and flourishing condition, easy hours of work, happy faces of
men, women and children as they work or play or study. It looks well,
but as I always tell him, there is a weak spot in it somewhere."

"What duz he say to that?" sez I, dretful interested in the story.

"Why, he says the only weak spot in it is his own incompetence and
inability to carry out the Christ idea of love and justice as he wants
to."

"I wish I could see that City of Justice," sez I dreamily, for my
mind's eye seemed to look up to Robert Strong in reverence and
admi