purpose of stimulating his sinking spirits, or easing his fiery head, he is up and out at daylight, and, although intending to take but one glass, begins the day as he had begun the misspent yesterday. Had he been home at ten o'clock on the night before, and were he presented with no bar-room inducement to leave his house before eight o'clock in the morning, he would have had ten hours sleep or rest, instead of four, and a respite of the same length from the fatal glass; for, I contend, that most drinkers do their destructive work outside their own dwellings, and among boon companions." CHAPTER XXVII. Ben as a Reformer--His Opinions on the Temperance Question--Physical Culture--The Social Evil--Prisons and Penitentiaries--Gambling. The reader who has followed these pages to the present point will, I think, admit that the life of Ben Hogan has been one of strange adventure and untiring activity. It would be singular, indeed, if such a career had not left strong impressions upon the mind of the man who has followed it. These impressions have given rise to convictions on many important questions, which, to my thinking, are sound and reasonable. I shall attempt to lay before the reader some of the opinions held by Ben Hogan touching the subjects of temperance and the social evil. With respect to the first, it is Hogan's belief that the principle of total abstinence will never effect the reform which its advocates claim. The first distinction to be drawn is that between temperance and total abstinence. The words have come to be used by many persons as synonymous; but their meaning is widely different. A man may drink wine, beer, or spirits all his life, and still be strictly temperate. If we apply this rule to anything excepting intoxicating drinks, its validity will at once be apparent. For example: Beef is an excellent article of diet, and yet a man may use it in such excessive quantities as to overstrain the digestive organs and bring about all manner of diseases. We are not to reason from this that men should give up beef altogether. Its abuse, and not use, alone, is to be condemned. So with liquor. If pure wine or whiskey can be obtained, and if it is taken only in moderation, it is an established fact that the system is not injured. But, says the advocate of total abstinence, hundreds of men cannot take liquor in moderation. If they touch it at all, they go at once to the wildest excesses. This is a fact; but for the sake of sound argument we must go behind the fact. Why is it that a man cannot touch liquor without plunging into excess? Because his system has been broken down by the vile stuff which is sold in most of the bar-rooms of this country. He does not know what pure liquor is; and having once become accustomed to the destroying fluids, which are sold under all sorts of names, it is doubtful whether he would appreciate the genuine article, even if he got it.