with us? The aged, the delicate, the infirm. The kernel of the
race is going, the husks are remaining with us. Intermarriage
among these, intermingling of enfeebled and tainted blood is one
of the main contributory causes why the walls of our asylums are
enlarging.

[Side note: Remedies]

Let us see what the priest can do to fight the national curse,
and stay the national haemorrhage.

[Side note: The Points to Fix on]

In dealing with the drink question his main purpose should be to
purify public opinion. Till that is done, every other effort must
fail. What use in our inveighing against a vice if the people
insist on labelling it a virtue? Our first effort must be to get
the people to view it in an honest light--to see it as we see it.
Public opinion up to this could scarcely be more depraved.

[Side note: The Village Scandal]

It was not an unusual thing to see young boys feigning
drunkenness and staggering through the village. Why? They were at
an age when pride began to crave for notoriety and applause. They
knew the public to which they appealed, and they took the
shortest cut to win its approbation, and that was by pretending
to be drunk.

An action like that is a terrible verdict against the national