LOTH. (To Hoffmann.) Of course I'm not afraid. You know very well that it was I who used to take you boys home after you'd had too much. And I've still got that same old iron constitution. No, that's not what scares me.
HOFFMANN. What then?
HELEN. Yes, what is your real reason for not drinking? Please tell us.
LOTH. (To Hoffmann.) All right, so that you'll be satisfied: I no longer drink, if for no other reason than that I have pledged by my word of honor to avoid all beverages containing alcoholic spirits.
HOFFMANN. In other words, you have cheerfully reduced yourself to the level of a temperance fanatic.
LOTH. I am a teetotaler.
HOFFMANN. And for how long, if one may ask, are you taking the pledge?
LOTH. For life.
HOFFMANN. (Throws down his knife and fork and half rises from his chair.) Jeee-sus! (Plops down again.) To be perfectly frank . . . I mean, I never thought you'd be so – if you'll pardon the expression – childish.
LOTH. You're welcome to call it that.
HOFFMANN. How in the world did you ever arrive at this sorry state?
HELEN. You must have rather substantial reasons. – At least, that's what I think.
LOTH. I do indeed have them. You probably have no notion, Miss Krause – nor do you, Hoffmann – of the horrible part that alcohol plays in modern life. . . . Read Bunge, if you want to begin to understand it. – I happen to remember what a man named Everett wrote concerning the significance of alcohol in the life of the United States. – Nota bene, his evidence covers a period of ten years. In that time, according to Everett, alcohol has directly devoured a sum of three billion dollars, and another six-hundred million indirectly. It has killed three-hundred thousand people; it has sent one-hundred thousand children into the streets to beg; it has driven countless other thousands of souls into the prisons and poorhouses; it has caused at least two thousand suicides; it is responsible for the loss of at least ten million dollars as a result of fire, violence, and vandalism; it has widowed no fewer than twenty thousand women, and it has made orphans of at least one million children. Worst of all, the effects of alcohol extend to the third and fourth generation. – Had I sworn never to marry, I might freely drink, but as things stand . . . After all, my ancestors were all healthy, vigorous and, as I happen to know, thoroughly temperate people. Every movement that I make, every hardship I surmount, every clear breath I draw makes me realize how much I owe them. And this, you see, is precisely the point: this heritage which is mine is one I am absolutely determined to transmit, both unsullied and undiminished, to any progeny I might sire.
MRS. KRAUSE. Hey – you know – them miners o' ours actually do drink too much. That's th' God's honest truth.
print version
return to list
previous document