“Old Bill” Suggests—

An ounce of specific example is sometimes worth a ton of preaching based on theory.

One of the reasons that the present generation looks favorably on drinking—just the other day, revisiting a little town of 1,200 inhabitants, we found four “taverns” where in our boyhood all the women in town would have been on the warpath if there had been a single saloon—is that the previous generation didn’t see much of it. On ehabitual drunkard will convert any family to prohibition.

Instead of a “horrible example” let us take a “good example” and show the outcome for a man who takes care of his health. Ernest E. Mortlock, conductor on the Chicago Surface Lines, is 65 years old and probably would not have the least trouble in keeping his job until he is 70. His eye is clear, his back straight, his arm hard as steel. His weight has not varied five pounds in 25 years.

He and his wife have lived in the same neat bungalow for 18 years. In addition, he owns 14 fireproof garages on two lots near his home. He built them back in 1928 and has an income and a business in addition to his salary. There is no mortgage on his property, and he doesn’t owe a dime to anyone. He has brought up two sons to be as steady and self-reliant as he is himself. One, the elder, has two children of his own.

Mr. Mortlock gets plenty of fun out of life, and is just now attending a convention of Spanish War veterans in Atlantic City. After the convention he is going up to his home town in Nashua, New Hampshire, which he hasn’t seen for 29 years. He can chuckle at a joke with anyone, and will not even refuse to take a glass—one glass—on a special occasion.

But habitually, as a lifelong rule, both as a young man in the Army and since, he did not and does not smoke or drink.

ROYAL F. MUNGER.