Why Rudyard Kipling Became a Prohibitionist.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXIII, Issue 7367, 15 November 1898, Page 4

Why Rudyard Kipling Became a Prohibitionist.

In his " American Notes," page 121, Rudyard Kipling., the English author whose stories and poems are read by all the .English speaking world, tells how, in a concert hall in the city of Buffalo, he saw two young men get two girls drunk and lead them reeling down a dark street. Mr Kipling has not been a total abstainer, nor have his writings commended Temperance, but of that _ scene he writes : 4 ■ Then, recanting previous opinions, I became a Prohibitionist. Better it is that a man should go without his beer in public places, and content himself with swearing at the narrow mindednessof the majority ; better it is to poison the inside with very vile temperance diinks and to buy lager furtively at back doors, than to bring temptation to the lips of young fools such as the four I had seen. I understand now why the preachers rage against drink I have said, 4 There is no harm in it, taken moderatelyand yet my demand for beer helped directly, to send these two girls reeling down the dark street—God alone knows to what end. If liquor is worth drinking, it is worth taking a little trouble to come at ; - such trouble as a man wili undergo to compass his own desires. It is not good that;we should let it lie before the eyes of children, and I have been a fool in writing to the contrary."—The Voice.

Now that sound can be stored, Homebody (suggests a writer In an English paper) should obtain a photographic record of- a lengthy, sentence as.- it -ie spoken by a native of every county in England. The'differences.: of dialect and: tone .in the oral .English 4 of to-day would astonish posterity.