Question

A speech on moderate drinking - A school where a drunkard graduate A 4 minute speech

Answer 1

Ladies and Gentlemen, I feel here that I hold a position in presence of this great assembly, as it appears to me, very much analogous to that which a preface or introduction holds in relation to a book, and in this case, I may certainly say, to a volume of rich and varied contents. If there were no such contents, there would certainly be no preface. Now, I don't know whether you read the preface to a book. I always do : some people never do, but I think that it holds a useful and subordinate position to the volume which we wish to know something about, and it is only because I thought I might fill such a useful and subordinate position 6 Moderate Drinking. to-night that I accepted this post. You know when an author comes before the public, it is his first duty to say why a book is wanted at all, and that at the present day is a very useful thing to require of him and, secondly, not only why the book is wanted at all, but why it is wanted on that particular subject which he has chosen to indite. So here, in coming before this meeting, which, after all, is but a large written book which we ask you to listen to, we are entitled to tell you first of all why we hold a meeting at all, and secondly, what is the express purpose of this one in particular. Then, I think I may say that this meeting is called to-night because there ^re many who believe and they do not wish to be dogmatic that there is a great deal of erroneous belief current in society relative to the value of alcoholic and fermented liquors as articles of diet; and secondly, as far as I understand the scope of the meeting, it has to do especially with the question of declaring whether, and if so, to what extent, it is desirable to have alcoholic liquor for any por- tion of our dietary at all. Such a question as that raised only a few years ago would have excited very great opposition. Nevertheless, there were some good and wise men who did raise that question, and I can certainly say that Sir Henry Thompson's Speech* 7 -in my recollection the attitude towards such has been very greatly changed. The views of the public now are very different from what they were in a period within my memory. I perfectly well remember as a boy in the country the time when every good host placed always sufficient liquor, and more than sufficient, before his guests at every dinner to carry them, as it was then said, under the table, and very often a good and agreeable guest did show his strong appre- ciation of the quality of his host's liquor by afterwards going there. Now all this is changed. We find that this part of the drinking usages at least has disappeared, and I find from my own experience and I come in contact with a great number of people that if in conversation as to the necessity of drinking I make the slightest remark, that some quantity which is sometimes called "moderate," a word which it is impossible to define I say, if I make a remark that that quantity is too much, the individual to whom I am speaking instantly replies to me by such a phrase as this : " I assure you, sir, I never was the worse for liquor in my life. I take my moderate amount of wine, or beer, or what not ; but I assure you I was never the worse for liquor in my life."