Youthful Essayists on the Evils of Drink

1907

In the Hull elementary schools a prize was offered for the best essay on the evils of drink, and nearly 12,000 pupils competed. Extracts from their compositions were given by Dr. Eccles in a lecture before the Society For the Study of Inebriety. He quoted the following gems:

"Today many people are in jail for committing suicide while under the influence of drink."

"Alcohol has an effect upon a medical man's conclusions."

"Doctors say that fatal diseases are the worst."

"Doctors say that the increased death rate shortens lives."

"Some people think that the abuse of drink is right; some take it as a medicine." — London Tit-Bits.


What Is the English Throne?

The English throne — what is it? Is it the stone chair of Westminster abbey? That is only occupied once by each king or queen, and that only at the coronation ceremony. Is it the chair of state in the house of lords or the reception chair at Buckingham palace or the sumptuous gilt thing which the king uses at Windsor when he receives the foreign envoys? It is an interesting question, which some people would like to have answered. Most everybody, however, has come to the conclusion that in the majority of countries the throne is merely a symbol, and the expressions "he has succeeded to the throne" and "speeches from the throne" are only metaphors.

Stevenson as Natural Vagabond Dug Power from Life

1919

Robert Louis Stevenson called himself an idler. He was a natural vagabond who loved to go in old clothes upon his own way through the strange city haunts of the disinherited or out upon the open road. He despised smug society, but talked eagerly with all sorts of men and women. Yet even as a boy he always carried a notebook and a pencil and constantly put into words what he saw and thought and felt. He wrote until his health gave way, again and again, and then he wrote of that.

Between 1873 and 1879 he produced many of the most inspiring essays of the "Virginibus Puerisque" series. The magazines published "A Lodging for the Night," "Will o' the Mill," the fantastic "New Arabian Nights," and other stories.

In 1879 he made the journey to California in steerage and emigrant-train, determined to "learn for himself the pinch of life as it is felt by the unprivileged and poor." The hardships injured his health, but did not deter him from making the first draft of "The Amateur Emigrant." He recuperated on a goat ranch near Monterey and managed to touch some neglected children. In Monterey afterward he planned his romantic comedy, "Prince Otto."

He completed the breakdown of his health by living on starvation rations in a workman's lodging in San Francisco and working feverishly. After a dangerous illness, he married and lived in the mining camp of "The Silverado Squatters."

Thus did Stevenson the idler dig his material and his power out of life itself.