_Politics, military organizations, etc._--Many a man has been made a
drunkard by the war, or by becoming an active politician. Associations
of men leading to excitement of any kind stimulate them to invite each
other to drink as a social custom. Former inebriates should avoid all
forms of excitement. Said a former politician, who has not drank for
five years: "If I was to go back to politics, and allow matters to take
their natural course, I should soon drift again into drunkenness."

"_Idleness_," says the French proverb, "is the mother of all vices;"
hence the advantage and importance of being actively employed.

_Working in communities._--There are no men more inclined to drunkenness
than shoemakers, hatters and those in machine shops. Shoemakers are
especially difficult to reform, as they incite each other to drink, and
club together and send out for beer or whisky.

_Use of excessive quantities of pepper, mustard and horse-radish._--No
person can use biting condiments to the same degree as drunkards; and
reformed men must largely moderate their allowance, if they expect to
keep their appetite under for something stronger. Tavern-keepers
understand that salt and peppery articles, furnished gratis for lunch,
will pay back principal and profit in the amount they induce men to
drink.

_Loss of money or death in the family._--These are among the most severe
of all the trials to be encountered by the reformed drunkard. Hazardous
ventures in stocks or business are dangerous in the extreme. Without the
grace of God in the heart, and the strength that it gives in times of
depression of spirits under severe trial, there are few reformed men who