RESPECTABLE WHISKY SELLING.
A TEMPERANCE discussion once sprung up in a stage coach crossing the Alleghanies, and the subject was handled without gloves. One gentleman maintained a stoical silence until he could endure it no longer; then he broke out strongly, saying: "Gentlemen, I want you to understand that I am a liquor seller. I keep a public house, but I would have you to know that I have a license, and keep a decent house. I don't keep loafers and loungers about my place, and when a man has enough he can get no more at my bar. I sell to decent people, and do a respectable business." When he had delivered himself, he seemed to think that he had put a quietus on the subject, and that no answer could be given. Not so thought a Quaker, who was one of the company. Said he: "Friend, that is the most damning part of thy business. If thee would sell to drunkards and loafers, thee would help kill off the race, and society would be rid of them; but thee takes the young, the poor, the innocent, and the unsuspecting, and makes drunkards of them. And when their character and money are gone, thee kicks them out, and turns them over to other shops to be finished off; and thee ensnares others, and sends them on the same road to ruin." Surely the Quaker had the best of the argument, for he had the facts on his side. The more respectable and attractive any public house is, the greater the mischief it is able to do in any decent community.—Evangelical Messenger.