The Ethics of Drink and Other Social Questions | Page 5

soddened company, and I am not able to guess where some of the songs
and recitations came from. There are deeps below deeps, and I suppose
that there are skilled literary workmen who have sunk so far that they
are ready to supply the unspeakable dirt which I heard.
There was a merry crowd at the bar when this astounding function
ceased, and the lively lads jostled, and laughed, and quoted some of the
more spicy specimens of nastiness which they had just heard.
Now, I should not have mentioned such an unsavoury business as this,
but that it illustrates in a curious way the fact that one is met and
countered by the power of Drink at every turn in this country. Among

that unholy audience were one or two worthies who ought by rights to
have called the police, and forced the promoters of the fun to appear
before the Bench in the morning. But then these magistrates had an
interest in Beer, and Brewery shares were pretty well represented in the
odious room, and thus a flagrant scandal was gently passed aside. The
worst of it is that, after a rouse like this, the young men do not care to
go to bed, so they adjourn to some one's rooms and play cards till any
hour. In the train next morning there are blotchy faces, dull eyes,
tongues with a bitter taste, and there is a general rush for "liveners"
before the men go to office or warehouse; and the day drags on until
the joyous evening comes, when some new form of debauch drowns
the memory of the morning's headache. Should you listen to a set of
these men when the roar of a long bar is at its height at night, you will
find that the life of the intellect has passed away from their midst. The
fellows may be sharp in a small way at business, and I am sure I hope
they are; but their conversation is painful in the extreme to any one
who wishes to retain a shred of respect for his own species. If you listen
long, and then fix your mind so that you can pick out the exact
significance of what you have heard, you become confounded. Take the
scraps of "bar" gabble. "So I says, 'Lay me fours.' And he winks and
says, 'I'll give you seven to two, if you like.' Well, you know, the horse
won, and I stood him a bottle out of the three pound ten, so I wasn't
much in." "'What!' says I; 'step outside along o' me, and bring your pal
with you, and I'll spread your bloomin' nose over your face.'" "That
corked him." "I tell you Flyaway's a dead cert. I know a bloke that goes
to Newmarket regular, and he's acquainted with Reilly of the
Greyhound, and Reilly told him that he heard Teddy Martin's cousin
say that Flyaway was tried within seven pounds of Peacock. Can you
have a better tip than that?" "I'll give you the break, and we'll play for a
bob and the games." "Thanks, deah boy, I'll jest have one with you. Lor!
wasn't I chippy this morning? I felt as if the pavement was making
rushes at me, and my hat seemed to want a shoehorn to get it on or off
for that matter. Bill's whisky's too good." "I'm going out with a Judy on
Sunday, or else you'd have me with you. The girls won't leave me alone,
and the blessed dears can't be denied." So the talk goes steadily forward.
What can a bright lad learn there? Many of the assembly are very
young, and their features have not lost the freshness and purity of skin

which give such a charm to a healthy lad's appearance. Would any
mother like to see her favourite among that hateful crowd? I do not
think that mothers rightly know the sort of places which their darlings
enter; I do not think they guess the kind of language which the youths
hear when the chimes sound at midnight; they do not know the
intricacies of a society which half encourages callow beings to drink,
and then kicks them into the gutter if the drink takes hold effectually.
The kindly, seemly woman remains at home in her drawing-room, papa
slumbers if he is one of the stay-at-home sort; but Gerald, and Sidney,
and Alfred are out in the drink-shop hearing talk fit to make Rabelais
turn queasy, or they are in the billiard-room learning to spell "ruin"
with all convenient speed, or perhaps they have "copped it"--that is the
correct phrase--rather early, and they are swaggering along, shadowed
by some creature--half girl, half tiger-cat--who will bring them up in
good time. If the women knew enough,