p. 525 | EMPTY GLASSES

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 24, 1881

EMPTY GLASSES.

WINE-GLASSES are suggestive, even if there is nothing in them, and any host of teetotal principles will prefer their room to their company, as Vice-President Wilson certainly did. Many “temperance” anecdotes have been told of that noble man, but we do not recollect having seen this before.

On one occasion he gave a little party at a popular hotel. The table was set with wine-glasses. After a brief period, there being no indication of the glasses being filled, one of the guests, who did not hesitate to moisten his clay whenever opportunity offered, lifted his goblet and said archly:—

“General, why these glasses, if nothing is to fill them?”

Whereupon the General rose at the head of the table, and said, with emotion:—

“Gentlemen, I suppose these glasses were placed on the table after the manner of the house, for I certainly did not order them. Whatever there may be under the roof of this building that will minister to your enjoyment to-night, save intoxicating drinks, you are at liberty to command, and I shall be pleased to respond to the call. At the age of nineteen years, knowing what it was to have a drunken father, I resolved never to use, and never to provide, intoxicating liquors. That pledge I have religiously kept. I cannot depart from it now, even in the privacy of this small, retired gathering. This, gentlemen, is my answer to the suggestion of our friend.”

This was the outcome of a frank, honest nature, and the generous response which followed, even from him who started the incident, showed that it was of the kind that one touch “makes the whole world kin.”—Boston Commonwealth.