Article August 26, 1916 Issue

Taking a Right Stand

J. M. JACKSON

ON various occasions I have felt impelled to relate the following facts. For several years my business brought me in contact with men of all sorts and kept me on the street much of the time. The majority of these men frequented the saloons pretty regularly, and although intoxicating drinks never were palatable to me, and I usually chose a cigar or a mild beverage, yet it seemed impossible to remain in the business and not continue to frequent the saloons. Being a young student of Christian Science at the time, the matter was one to which I gave considerable thought, but was not able to see my way out.

Not to relate all the intermediate steps, I may say that in the course of time I was elected to a certain position in the church of which I was then a member. Feeling the position to be an honored one and that it should be maintained with dignity and credit, it came home to me one day that to patronize the saloons even nominally was not compatible with the standard which should be maintained by me as an official in a Christian Science church. Then and there I decided that this would have to cease.

Now here is where the surprising part of the demonstration came in. Having come to this decision, I expected considerable difficulty in carrying it out, knowing the frequency with which I was invited and the persistence which was often exercised to induce me to enter the saloons,—efforts which were frequently by no means easy to resist without, as it seemed to me, impairing my usefulness and prospects in a business in which geniality and good-fellowship, as they are popularly understood, are considered valuable assets.

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