Our national vice / by William Reid.

  • Reid, William, 1814-1896
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Our national vice / by William Reid. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/200 (page 10)
    “ Weel, ye see, when he was coming after me, one night, he cam’ late, and smelt o’ whisky. ‘ Whaur hae ye been ? ’ said I. ‘ I hae been naewhere,’ said he. ‘ Dinna tell me that; your breath betrays you. Guid nicht wi’ ye ; I keep com- pany with naebody that enters a public-house or drinks whisky.’ He looked queer; but I just turned on my heel and left him. Next nicht he cam’ tae me, and asked a word at the door, and put into my hand that teetotal ticket hang- ing up there ; and he has kept it ever since, and is far keener on’t than even I am.” Would that all young women treated their admirers thus, and that all young men had sense enough to act upon a good advice when they get it; then we would have less reason to complain of that domestic misery and social degradation which fills with sorrow the hearts of the best friends of the working-classes. “ Would you be kind enough to look down my throat,” said a young man to his doctor, whom he one day met on the streets of New York. The doctor did as he was bid, and said, “ I see nothing wrong.” “ That’s strange; look again.” And again the doctor put his glass to his eye, and gazed down. “ I see nothing, sir.” “ Well, that is very strange. Why, sir, there has gone down there a farm, ten thousand dollars, and twenty negroes ! ” And it was so. Farm, dol- lars, and negroes had all gone down in the shape of rum. It may be that workmen drink neither farms, dollars, nor negroes; but do they not sometimes drink the wife’s bonnet, shoes, or shawl—the children’s stockings, frocks, or trousers, in the shape of whisky ? Now, this I hold, that no workman has a right to spend a sixpence upon strong drink, tobacco, or any other indulgence, till he has seen his wife as decently clad as every workman would like to see his wife, and till his children are so well “put on ” as to make him proud to say, as a friend meets him, “ These are my bairns.” Through dissipation and improvidence the earnings ot thousands are wasted, and habits formed utterly at variance with domestic comfort. For a mechanic to spend a fourth of his wages on liquor is nothing uncommon ; nay, we know many instances in which every shilling earned goes into the till of the publican, while the wife is left to provide for family wants as she best can, by washing clothes or