GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



TEMPEMANCE 



RUSSIA; ITS EMANCIPATION AS THE RESULT 

 OP THE WAR^ ETC. 



We clip the following from the New 

 Britain (Ct.) Herald: 



DRUNKEN RUSSIA TO SOBER RUSSIA. 



This terrible war raging across the seas has beou 

 a series of astonishing happenings. None, perhaps, 

 has been more unexpected than the complete aboli- 

 tion of the liquor traffic in Russia. The prohibition 

 of the sale of alcoholic drinks was a temporary war 

 measure to prevent disorder during the mobilization 

 of the army, which was a powerful acknowledgment 

 that alcoholic drinks are a disturber of peace and 

 an e.xeitent to the worst passions of human nature. 



At the end of a month the transformation from 

 drunken Russia to a sober Russia was such an 

 illuminating lesson in favor of absolute prohibition 

 of the sale of intoxi.cating drinks that the Czar, in 

 answer to a solicitation from the president of the 

 Russian Union of Abstinence, that the sale of spiritu- 

 ous liquors be forever discontinued, replied: 



" I thank you. I long ago decided to interdict 

 for all time in Russia the sale of alcoholic drinks 

 by the government." 



George Kennan, the proficient critic of Russia, 

 says in the Outlook: "For the first time in the his- 

 tory of mankind one-seventh part of the habitable 

 globe has gone dry, and 170,000,000 people have 

 stopped drinking intoxicating liquor. For many 

 weeks the sale of vodka has been completely suspend- 

 ed, and the whole population has looked at the Eu- 

 ropean situation through absolutely sober eyes." 

 Our own government, which prides itself upon its 

 advanced civilization, would do well to pause and 

 ask itself if its boasted moral superiority can be 

 maintained in the face of this grand step taken by 

 the Czar of all Russia who has banished from his 

 empire an evil that has not one redeeming quality, 

 but is an unspeakable and unqualified menace to 

 the peace and liappiness and prosperity of every 

 nation within whose gates it is tolerated. 



The revival of industry, thrift, and self-respect 

 which so quickly followed the suppression of the 

 liquor in Russia was an object-lesson which the 

 Czar of Russia was keen enough to perceive, and 

 great enough to accept and apply to the good of his 

 people ; and herein lies his superiority over all other 

 rulers of the world. It was the Kaiser of Germany 

 who, not many months before the war began, said 

 that the nation that would rule the world would be 

 ihe nation that abolished the liquor traffic. This 

 war has revealed to the world a new Russia in more 

 ways than one, and the world may well tremble be- 

 fore a sober Russia. Mr. Kennan, who has long 

 studied Russia at close range, says: "In the list 

 of Russia's spiritual awakening, the spontaneous 

 and universal welcoming of prohibition as a great 

 national blessing for which everybody is ready is 

 not the only proof of her extraordinary growth," and 

 adds, " If the war should do nothing more than free 

 Russia from the curse of vodka it would be worth 

 all that it can possibly cost in treasure and life." 

 Must our own beloved country pay such a price to 

 become a sober nation? We may rest assured that 

 the Kaiser's opinion was not based on an idle di'eara, 

 but upon hard common sense and a knowledge of 

 the degenerating influence of alcoholic drinks. 



Do not we as a nation need as keen human 

 efficiency as the ball-player ? In McClure's Maga- 

 zine Connie Mark's management of his ball team is 

 good logic for the government of a people to follow, 

 and Russia has followed it. Connie Mack savs: 



Keep in mind tliat steady — ' moderate ' — drinking 

 gets a hall-player in the end just as sure as boozing 

 alcohol slows a man down inevitably, and slowing 

 down is the reason for the shelving of by far the 

 majority of players.'' He also says, " You ask nic 

 why the world's champions have done so well. I 

 have to answer: Because of the kind of lives they 

 lead, and tlieir consequent ability to think and a< t 

 quickly in an emergency. It is not a matter of 

 morals to our club, but of luinian efficiency." Aie 

 we to re jtdre less efficiency in our legislators than 

 is required in our professional sports? It is a fact 

 that on the " hundred thousand dollar infield " not a 

 man has ever known the taste of liquor. Why not 

 apply the same rule tu our senators and represent- 

 atives? Do we not need as high an efficiency "to 

 think and act quickly " in our law-makers as in our 

 ball-players ? 



Tlie fact of it is, we have not brought to bear the 

 same intelligent common sense in choosing our law- 

 makers as the manager of the field of sports has in 

 the choice of his players; hence the colossal fail re 

 of our democratic government. Lastly, listen to 

 these sensible words of Connie Mack: "From the 

 standpoint of the public — the people who pay their 

 25, 50, 75 cents or a dollar to see good baseball, 

 they are entitled to see the player at his best — not 

 slowed up by drink." Are the tax-payers of America 

 entitled to less? The Kaiser of Germany was right. 

 The nation that dominates the world will be the 

 nation that is not slowing up through drink. Rus- 

 sia dominates the world to-day in spiritual superi- 

 ority. She has recognized the right of her people 

 to a government not crippled by alcoholic drinks. 



America should have been the nation to set the 

 world this lofty stand — and — alasl she has failed 

 just at her most boasted point — her moral and 

 spiritual superiority. Russia will ever stand on the 

 pages of history as the first nation to break the 

 shackles of the liquor traiitic from off her peop'e. 

 The great man is he who seizes the opportunity and 

 crystallizes it into a living fact. The Czar of 

 Russia stands at this hour the greatest man araon^ 

 all nations. — Marinda G. Btitlcr Robinson. 



A KOKETASTE OF HEAVEN. 



A country vicar, writing in the Novoye Vremya, 

 says of the changed conditions in Russia under 

 prohibition : 



" The old women in the villages can hardly believe 

 their own eyes and ears, so changed are their men- 

 folk. Not a hard word, not a row, but everywhere 

 peace, kindness, and industry. War is said to be 

 hell ; but this is like a foretaste of heaven." — Union 

 Signal. 



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TOV I'ISTOLS, ETC. 



Mr. A. J. Root : — Gleanings came in to-day; and, 

 as I always do, I turned first to your letter and then 

 the article following; and to the letter from Chas. R. 

 Hill I want to give my support. I have only one boy, 

 13 years old, and, of course, I think more of him and 

 of my 78-year old father than of any other man or 

 boy living; but I have never loved him well enough to 

 buy for him a toy pistol. I think a father's love 

 should run in an entirely different channel than that 

 of pistols for his boys. 



1 hope you will enjoy the winter in Florida, and 

 live many years yet to keep mankind in the straight 

 uid narrow way. 



Lake Butler, Fla., Nov. 19. Chas. H. Register. 



