MODERN BLACKSMITHING 15 



this for one year and it will stimulate to continual 

 effort in that direction. The best thing to do is to 

 "swear off" at once, and if you must have it, take it 

 out of business hours. Politely inform your friends 

 that you must stop, or it will ruin you. If you drink 

 with one you must drink with another, and the oppor- 

 tunity comes too often. When you have finished some 

 difficult work you are to be treated; when you trust 

 you are to be treated; when you accommodate one 

 before another you are to be treated ; when you order 

 the stock from the traveling man you are to be treated. 

 Some smiths keep a bottle in a corner to draw custom- 

 ers by ; others tap a keg of beer every Saturday for the 

 same purpose. No smith will ever gain anything by 

 this bad practice. He will only get undesirable cus- 

 tomers, and strictly temperance people will shun him 

 for it. What he gains on one side he will lose on 

 another. Besides this he will in the long run ruin 

 himself physically and financially. Let the old smith 

 quit and the apprentice never begin this dangerous 

 habit. A smith that is drunk or half drunk cannot do 

 his duty to his customers, and they know it, and prefer 

 to patronize a sober smith. 



