PROHIBITION FOR THE FARMER 71 



seem that those who are able and have the taste to use 

 only old and ripened intoxicating liquors are less 

 vicious and less dangerous under their influence than 

 those who patronize the artificial varieties. 



CONTINUING EFFECT OF THE- JAG. 



The effect upon the farm laborer of his Sunday jag 

 is most disastrous. All day Saturday he is uneasy 

 and inefficient in his work, as he thinks of the ap- 

 proaching hour when his raging thirst, so-called, will 

 be quenched. This is a most unfortunate figure of 

 speech. There is no quenching of a thirst ; there is the 

 igniting of a powder magazine. If thirst really ex- 

 isted, a cup of cold mountain water from the near by 

 spring would soon satisfy it. No, it is a craving of 

 the caged lion for liberty, of the starving man for food, 

 of the criminal for blood. It can be satisfied only by 

 the stimulus which brings surcease of sorrow, freedom 

 from the knowledge of fatigue, and a happy reckless- 

 ness which makes the world for a time look rosy and 

 attractive. Then the Sunday of drinking and carous- 

 ing, ending in drunkenness and debauchery, then a 

 Monday of sobering and recuperation, during which no 

 work can be done, then a Tuesday of lassitude and de- 

 pression, due to the reaction from the stimulus, and so 

 we come to the middle of the week before the farm la- 

 borer is himself again, only to work for a few days to 

 get means to repeat the debauchery from which he has 

 just recovered. 



To this large class of people, brought up at hard 

 labor, often without education, or rather, often without 

 the ambition for education, these dull, long-suffering, 

 stupid wrecks of humanity, the weekly debauch brings 

 the only ray of hope and joy in their lives. Yet if it 



