King Alcohol Dethroned

ly as an abuse of a custom mentally valuable, and they were often apologized for rather than condemned. OLIVER GOLDSMITH English literature took for granted as true the mistaken verdict of science that alcohol is not only friendly, but necessary, to the highest mental exercise. This thought is thus expressed by Oliver Goldsmith in "She Stoops to Conquer": "Let schoolmasters puzzle their brains With grammar and nonsense and learning, Good liquor, I stoutly maintain, Gives genius a better discerning." Certainly that is the idea he had when, as the son of a poor Irish preacher, he entered TrinityCollege in Dublin at seventeen. His genius won him a prize of six dollars, and to "give it a better discerning" he spent it in buying some "good liquor" and giving a supper and dance in his college room and causing such a hilarious time that his tutor rushed into the room, gave him a good thrashing and kicked his guests out of doors. Disgraced, the student resolved to leave college and had to sell his books and some clothes for money to get out of town. He loafed around Dublin with convivial companions till all of his money was gone except enough to take him to Cork. He managed to get back into college again and gained his degree of Bachelor of Arts a year or so after the regular time. Oliver, the young graduate of twenty-one, the son of an Irish minister and brother of a curate, decided to enter the ministry. He began his two years of probation. He read everythi...