My Discovery of England

ails immediately introduces the subject: the rest of the dinner is enlivened throughout with the discussion of rum-runners, bootleggers, stor

ulk and by weight. And a "brilliant engineer" means a man who explains how to make homebrewed beer with a kick in it. Similarly, a "raconteur" means a man who has a fund of amusing stories about "bootleggers" and an "interesting traveller" means a man who has been to Havana and can explain how wet it is. Indeed, the whole conception of travel and of interest in foreign countries is now

the table Monsieur Briand said to President Harding, "How dry is the United States, anyway?" And the whole assembly tal

first question I would be asked would be "Is England going dry?" I realised that in any report I might make to the National Geographical Society or to the Political Science Associatio

ybody knows, there is no way of taking a drink except by climbing up on the roof, lying flat on one's stomach, and taking a suck out of a flask. But in England in any dining car one actually sees a waiter approach a person dining and say, "Be

train. I anticipated that the train conductor would appear and throw the waiter off the car. But then I realised that I was in England and that in the British Isles th

quantity of beer consumed in England in a given period is about 200,000,000 gallons. The life of a bottle of Scotch whiskey is seven seconds. The number of public houses, or "pub

the coming eclipse of the sun. But this is always so. It is in human nature that people are impressed by the cause they work in. I once knew a minister of the Scotch Church who took a voyage round the world: he said that the thing that impressed him most was the growth of presbyterianism in Japan. No doubt it did. When the Orillia lacrosse team too

Ireland, prohibition will only be introduced when they have run out of other forms of trouble. But in England I think that prohibition cou

humour. I find a similar popular error in regard to the use of whiskey by the Scotch. Because they manufacture the best whiskey in the world, the Scotch, in popular fancy, are often thought to be addicted to the drinking of it. This is purely a delusion. During the whole of t

matter. For a lecturer who has to earn his living by his occupation, a draft on the platform is not a thing to be disregarded. It might kill him. Nor is it altogether safe for the chairman himself, a man already in middle life, to be exposed to a current of cold air. In this case, therefore, the chairman suggested that he thought it might be

lmed by a heavy fog or an avalanche of snow or a driving storm of rain. In such a case a mere drop of whiskey might save his life. It would be folly not to take it. Again,-"coming in out of the weather" is a thing not to be trifled w

; Two, because it is not raining; Three, because you are just going out into the weather; Four, because you have just come in from the weather; Five; no, I for

ch make use of whiskey with dignity and wit

open then till noon, shut for ten minutes, and so on; in some places they are open in the morning and closed in the evening; in other places they are open in the evening and closed in the morning. The ancient idea was that a wayside public house was a place of sustenance and comfort, a human need that might be wanted any hour. It was in the same class with the life boat or the emergency ambulance.

. And like the flowers at evening they close their petals with the darkness. In London they have already adopted the deadly phrases of the prohi

alls echo in the empty street. Here and there a restaurant in a fashionable street makes a poor pretence of keeping open for after theatre suppers. Odd people, the shivering wrecks of theatre parties, are huddled here and there. A gloomy waiter lays a sardine on the table. The guests cha

hing to go to bed earl

to say so and let their code of regulations reflect the fact. But the "closing" and "regulating" and "squeezing" of the "liquor traffic", without any outspoken p

ge is reached and London goes the way of New York and Chicago. I cast it in the form of a letter from an American prohibitio

F PROHIBITIO

correspondence of

have lived to see t

last accomplished

lt about the British

m

in the great campa

didn't seem to work.

home in America,

ng the inscription:

people looked on a

ers were almost dis

n ex-barkeeper from

e have total prohib

t all the drink they

oke down

come. After the mos

nation stampeded,

has been dry. I

es, just like what

as known that the

e of Lords all stoo

h! Rah! Who's bone d

ers were emptying t

t as at St. Louis t

e Missi

ith what pleasure

enaeum Club sittin

bottles of champa

think," said one o

n I used to lap up a

every evening." I

uvenir, and I got s

, when the members o

heir cellars into G

ll still be able, of

dr

, been bone dry on

ting the same sple

ig dinners are now

nner speeches as lon

or Toronto. The oth

Club I heard Sir O

tile way that he use

ked for over an hou

the Chinese Railway

self back

lass too. It is j

reased their effici

eir work the moment

to do so. I noticed

ding operation vain

Come, come, gentlem

stopping for the n

g bricks fast

here are a few slig

as there are with u

ble with wood-alc

ere), with the same

t of deaths is very

men we can hardly sp

n fact, most of them

ss, too, among the

al prof

inful scene last we

y's Inn. It seems t

aken to make home b

do on our side of t

fetch him some h

of yeast and some b

nchers were carried

them a public fu

at the death list

f the best sailors

ep admirals. But I h

hat these are merely

hat, with a little

als and bone-dry st

Even the clergy c

and per

ight sensation here

rought in his firs

tion. From our poin

h. But these people

ly asked for ten mi

ained that his task

e entire coast, but

ls of Scotland alone

l of questioning in

llor was asked if h

street corner in

other street." He a

brass collar w

er, and I am sorry

e have prohibiti

ult to get a drink.

e very early mor

most impossible. Th

sary to go into a d

an up against the

apoplexy. One ofte

ned up f

inding substitutes,

endous run on paten

d. It has been foun

and one sees peopl

er classes have take

and the use of op

ery greatly

u to think that if

te life will be in

ad to say that I h

ellars are very amp

have 5,000 cases o

et a card of introd

nd that, just as wi

tion is intended t

no desire to inter