But the American people, through their reformers, always have to go to extremes. We could not see the wisdom of cutting out or controlling hard drinking. We had to slam every door of every saloon; and, not content with that, we had to “mop up” the entire country--or ridiculously try to do so--until there should be no drop of beer, even, on anybody’s premises. Then, the moment we had done that, we forthwith craved a little liquor--because we couldn’t get it. Humanly enough, we were sorry that we had been so rash. True, we had rid ourselves of one of the most abhorrent evidences of our so-called civilization--the saloon with the swinging-door; but in doing so we had destroyed, or attempted to destroy, the harmless pleasure of men and women who had never entered a saloon. We punished everybody, in order to punish a few. This was not the right process. The folly of our reformers is working incalculable harm to the entire country. And the end is not yet. CHAPTER XIX IS EUROPE GOING DRY? If William E., otherwise known as “Pussyfoot,” Johnson has his way, Europe, too, will know the great drouth. It is something to have lost one’s eye in a cause, and still to retain one’s nerve and enthusiasm. There is no doubt that the liquor interests in Great Britain have become frightened, just as the tobacco interests have become alarmed here; and there are rumors of large sums being spent to contravert the propaganda of the temperance advocates in England. Lady Astor has come out strong for Prohibition. The London “pub” is a notoriously shocking place. In the meanest sections of the city, I have witnessed scenes which made one realize that Dickens did not exaggerate when he drew a character like _Bill Sykes_. I have seen thinly clad, anemic children waiting on the steps of a public house for not only their fathers, but their mothers, to emerge. And when they finally did so, they were so drunk that they could scarcely toddle to their wretched homes. The British could find a way to shut up these disreputable resorts without interfering with the liberty of that portion of the population which knows how to drink in moderation.