p. 237 | Standing Treat

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 25, 1882

Standing Treat.

ONE of the most foolish customs in the world is standing treat for drinks; other things are not bought in this way. Boys, if you want to be generous and treat each other, why not select some other place besides the liquor shop? Suppose, as you go by the post-office, you remark: “I say, my dear fellow, come in and take some stamps!” These stamps will cost you no more than drinks all around. Or go to the haberdasher’s and say: “Boys, come in and take a box of collars.” Walk up to a grocer’s, free and generous, and say: “What kind of coffee will you have?” Why not treat to groceries by the pound, as well as liquors by the glass? Or take your comrades to a cutler’s and say, “I’ll stand a good pocket-knife all around.”

Suppose a man should keep a den of rattlesnakes, and allow men to come in and be bitten at ten cents a bite? Would it be a sensible thing for a man to invite all his friends in to be bitten at his expense? Is it worth while to turn our friends into brutes, maniacs, murderers, and their homes into hells of trouble and distress, by giving them “something to drink at my expense?”—Golden Censer.