It was the same with liquor. For years I never saw a drunken man in the district. There were no spirits made, none to be obtained and none used. It is contrary to the religion of the better classes of Hindus to have anything to do with liquor in any manner, and the Muhamedan religion prohibits its use entirely. The people were in blissful ignorance of the use and effects of liquor. Along came the abkari agent of the Revenue Department of Government who saw a great field for his operations and he at once arranged for the erection of four distilleries. Natives in the Government service, both Hindu and Muhamedan were placed in charge. At first the distilleries were idle, but by sending out agents to offer big prices for sugar cane refuse, the natives were induced to bring the stuff for sale. Then the liquor was not used and the same methods were employed as for the introduction of opium. Places were licensed and liquor at first given away for the encouragement of trade and the benefit of the Government revenue. The result was that in a few years there were drunkards, and the nights were made hideous by their revelry. Idleness, poverty and crime increased. Broils destroyed the good order of the communities. The Muhamedan officer in charge told me that every year there was a large increase in the amount of spirits produced and the annual reports of Government were exultant over the increased revenue from this department. One of the members of the Board of Revenue, an Englishman, in one of his tours of examination boasted of the increasing success of the liquor traffic among the natives and the consequent advantage to Government. A man might as well boast of his seduction of innocence, of his robbery of widows or of defrauding the simple-minded. But what of the officers of Government, intelligent men, calling themselves Christians, representing a civilized Christian people, deliberately planning a scheme with the all-powerful, despotic, brute force of Government to debauch and degrade the ignorant, simple-minded people of India? The devil himself, if there be one, as the Christians devoutly believe, must have made hell ring with laughter when he saw what these Christian officers of a Christian nation were doing to help him damn the world. It may be asked why did the people submit to such tyranny and raise opium? Only an innocent, unacquainted with the power and methods of the Indian Government would ask such a question.