Mr. Garrison's Lecture.

Mr. Wm. Lloyd Garrison delivered a lecture in Sever 11, last night, on "The Duty of Total Abstinence and the Popular Fallacies Concerning Light Drinks." Dean Briggs introduced Mr. Garrison.

The word temperance, said Mr. Garrison, covers everything to the verge of intoxication. The difference between temperance and total abstinence is that the former is using in a moderate degree what is beneficial, while the latter is doing without what is harmful.

Drunkenness is not alluring. If the indulgence led immediately to drunkenness, no one would drink. The ranks of drunkenness are filled with those who were moderate drinkers.

Alcohol is worthless both as a food and as a medicine. It is true that the medical profession is responsible for much of the drunkenness of today. One celebrated physician has said that he could cure more diseases by prescribing total abstinence for one year than by ordinary practice for one hundred years. It is also well known that Baron Liebig said that there is as much nourishment in the quantity of flour that would lie on the point of a table knife as there is in eight pints of beer.

There is nothing which so inflames all the passions of a man as light drinks. The heriditary effects of beer, for instance, are known to be much more vicious than those of distilled liquors. Beer has a degenerating influence on the whole system, and beer drunkenness is the most degrading of all; it multiplies all forms of diseases and crimes. An idea has got abroad that drunkenness does not exist in wine producing countries. This is not true. The Germans, in spite of the popular notion that they are only beer drinkers, drink more heavy drink than any other people.

Temperence is not Total Abstinence. There can not be temperance in any use of something which harms the human body. Even a single glass takes the edge off the mind. Tippling saturates and deadens all the vital organs. There is always a day of reckoning, sooner or later. There is one thing that should always be borne in mind and that is Total Abstinence is easy although temperance is impossible.

After Mr. Garrison's lecture a short business meeting of the Harvard Total Abstinence League was held. The secretary, J. H. Lewis '95, gave a report showing the condition of the organization. Officers were elected for next year as follows: President, B. C. Auten '97; vice-president, J. P. Warren '96; secretary and treasurer, Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Jr., '97. A committee consisting of W. M. Trotter '95, J. H. Lewis '95, Wm. L. Garrison, Jr., '97, J. P. Warren '96, and B. C. Auten '97, was appointed to draw up a constitution, to be submitted before the close of the year.

Heretofore there have been no dues for membership, but as the League has held open meetings and expenses have been incurred, members will be asked to make contributions within the next two weeks to cover the expenses of the work which is being done.