I need not describe to you some of our social
saturnalias. I use strong language, for I cannot help it. We are all
too apt to look on their pleasant side, on the gayety, good cheer
and bright reunions by which they are attended, and to excuse the
excesses that too often manifest themselves. We do not see as we
should beyond the present, and ask ourselves what in natural result
is going to be the outcome of all this. We actually shut our eyes
and turn ourselves away from the warning signs and stern admonitions
that are uplifted before us.
"Is it any matter of surprise, Mr. Elliott, that we should be
confronted now and then with some of the dreadful consequences that
flow inevitably from the causes to which I refer? or that as
individual participants in these things we should find ourselves
involved in such direct personal responsibility as to make us
actually shudder?"
Mrs. Birtwell did not know how keen an edge these sentences had for
Mr. Elliott, nor how, deeply they cut. As for the clergyman, he kept
his own counsel.
"What can we do in this sad case?" he asked, after a few assenting
remarks on the dangers of social drinking. This is the great
question now. I confess to being entirely at a loss. I never felt so
helpless in the presence of any duty before."
"I suppose," replied Mrs. Birtwell, "that the way to a knowledge of
our whole duty in any came is to begin to do the first thing that we
see to be right.
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