You THINK you can take your occasional drink safely and
philosophize about the procession that passes the bartender.
But the bartender KNOWS that you are no different from the
others. They all began as you are beginning. They all, in the
early stages, despised their own forerunners.
They were once as you are, and the bartender KNOWS that the
chances are all in favor of your being eventually like one of
them.
Even like the poor, thin, nervous drinker of hard whiskey, who
once wondered why men drink too much. ----
The bartender's procession is a sad one, and you who still think
yourself safe are the saddest atom in the line, for you are there
without sufficient excuse.
It is a long procession, and its end is far off.
It is born of the fact that life is dull, competition is keen,
and ambition so often ends in sawdust failure.
A better chance for strugglers, a more generous reward for hard
work, better organization of social life, solution of the great
unsolved problem of real civilization, will end the bartender's
procession.
Meanwhile, keep out of it if you can. And be glad if it can be
suspended, temporarily at least, on Sundays.