Ben as a Reformer--His Opinions on the Temperance Question--Physical
Culture--The Social Evil--Prisons and Penitentiaries--Gambling.
The reader who has followed these pages to the present point will, I
think, admit that the life of Ben Hogan has been one of strange adventure
and untiring activity. It would be singular, indeed, if such a career had
not left strong impressions upon the mind of the man who has followed it.
These impressions have given rise to convictions on many important
questions, which, to my thinking, are sound and reasonable. I shall
attempt to lay before the reader some of the opinions held by Ben Hogan
touching the subjects of temperance and the social evil.
With respect to the first, it is Hogan's belief that the principle of
total abstinence will never effect the reform which its advocates claim.
The first distinction to be drawn is that between temperance and total
abstinence. The words have come to be used by many persons as synonymous;
but their meaning is widely different. A man may drink wine, beer, or
spirits all his life, and still be strictly temperate. If we apply this
rule to anything excepting intoxicating drinks, its validity will at once
be apparent. For example: Beef is an excellent article of diet, and yet a
man may use it in such excessive quantities as to overstrain the digestive
organs and bring about all manner of diseases. We are not to reason from
this that men should give up beef altogether. Its abuse, and not use,
alone, is to be condemned.
So with liquor. If pure wine or whiskey can be obtained, and if it is
taken only in moderation, it is an established fact that the system is not
injured. But, says the advocate of total abstinence, hundreds of men
cannot take liquor in moderation. If they touch it at all, they go at once
to the wildest excesses. This is a fact; but for the sake of sound
argument we must go behind the fact. Why is it that a man cannot touch
liquor without plunging into excess? Because his system has been broken
down by the vile stuff which is sold in most of the bar-rooms of this
country. He does not know what pure liquor is; and having once become
accustomed to the destroying fluids, which are sold under all sorts of
names, it is doubtful whether he would appreciate the genuine article,
even if he got it.
For more than forty years the doctrines of total abstinence have been
preached in this country. Young men have been told that whatever would
intoxicate should be shunned as a poison; and with this terrible
announcement ringing in their ears, they have stepped into the nearest
saloon and tested the poison in the shape of a cocktail. The Neal Dows and
Murphys and Oliver Cotters have given their theory a fair trial; and the
result is--what? That, making due allowance for the increase in
population, there is to-day three times the amount of drunkenness in the
United States that there was forty years ago. This stubborn fact would
seem to knock the bottom out of the total abstinence theory. Evidently we
are on the wrong track to suppress drunkenness. In Germany, everybody
drinks beer and Rhine wine; yet Germany is freer from the evil of
intoxication than any country in the world. In France, claret flows as
freely as water; and yet you rarely see a Frenchman drunk. In the United
States, nobody is supposed to drink anything, and the rates of drunkenness
are alarming.
Now it is Hogan's theory that if light wines and lager beer were made the
common beverages of the people, there would be a steady decrease in
drunkenness. Instead of attempting to prove to men that a glass of wine is
as bad as a dose of poison, show them that a glass of wine is infinitely
better than a glass of whisky, and you will carry conviction with your
argument. Let beer gardens and wine rooms be made respectable, as they are
on the continent of Europe. Let a man be able to take his wife and family
into these places, and not be obliged to stand behind a screen and guzzle
down the adulterated stuff in company with sots and ruffians. It is fair
to assume that men will go on drinking in the future as they have done in
the past. Stimulus is a natural craving of the system, especially where
life is run on the high-pressure principle which it is in this country.
Let us not undertake the impossible task of shutting off this stimulus--of
preventing men from drinking altogether--but rather let us seek to make
the beverages comparatively harmless.
The facilities for producing light, pure wines in this country, at an
expense which shall place them within reach of all, are unexampled.
California and the Ohio Valley could and should furnish wine enough to
supply the whole United States without importing a bottle. The manufacture
of lager beer has already become a most important industry. To our mind,
lager is destined to do more for the cause of true temperance than all the
ranting and radical speeches that were ever delivered on the subject.
Persuade a man to drink a glass of beer instead of the manufactured stuff
sold as whisky, and you put him out of the danger of delirium tremens.
These views, it is to be remembered, are entertained by a man who has had
abundant opportunities to study the evil effects of liquors. So thoroughly
convinced did Hogan become of the impossibility of furnishing pure spirits
to his patrons, that just before leaving the oil regions he refused to
sell any more distilled liquors. He told his customers plainly that it was
an impossibility to get good whisky. He gave them beer and wine if they
wanted it, but refused to help on the traffic in adulterated liquors.
Briefly summarized, then, Ben Hogan's views on temperance are these:
First, absolute purity in all liquors.
Second, the substitution of beer and light wines for whisky and other
strong drinks.
Third, the regeneration of places where wine and beer may be obtained, so
that they can be visited by anybody without the sacrifice of
respectability.
Certainly these views are reasonable, and since the total abstinence
doctrine has met with such signal failure, would it not be worth while to
give them a fair trial?
Closely allied to this question of temperance in Hogan's mind is that of
physical culture. He is a thorough believer in the old Latin proverb, "A
sound mind and a sound body." His own opportunities for mental
acquirements have been, as we have seen, limited. But if he has never
delved much into books, he has picked up a large stock of useful
information which the schools do not teach. Observation has taught him
that all cultivation of the mind which is made at the expense of the body
is to be counted in the end an unprofitable experiment. The Book of books
has asked what it shall profit a man to win the whole world and lose his
own soul? It may also be asked, What shall it profit a man to get the
wisdom of sages, and lose his health?
This word health means nothing more than a perfect operation of all the
functions of the human system. To obtain so desirable an end, is certainly
worth time and thought. Ninety-nine parents out of a hundred put their
children into school, and are tenacious about their mental growth, while
they leave the body to care for itself. Physical culture ought to begin as
early as that of the mind. A boy should be taught the laws of health
before he is taught the laws of arithmetic or grammar. Yet, while money is
freely expended to train the intellect, it is only in rare instances that
a child is put through a proper course of physical training.
It is a generally accepted fact that a perfectly healthy condition of the
body begets a corresponding state of mind. The mind, in short, is that
indefinable something--even the metaphysicians have not determined
what--but which relates to the brain, and is largely dependent upon that
organ for its operations. Now, the brain, as we know, is matter. It has
substance, color, and weight. It is, in short, a part of the body. When
the brain becomes disordered, reason loses its control, and the result is
insanity. On the other hand, if the body is kept well and strong, the
brain performs its work without difficulty, and a person is prepared to
grapple with the problems of life successfully.
All this leads up to the argument which Hogan advances in favor of
physical culture. Let a man devote a part of his time to the development
of his muscles. He will be better and stronger in every way if he does.
Proper and persistent exercise is the best medicine in the world. A pair
of dumb-bells contain more virtue than a dozen prescriptions. A sand-bag
may be made far more efficacious than the biggest box of pills ever
compounded. If your spirits are low, if you are subject to fits of
despondency, and find yourself looking upon the world with jaundiced eyes;
if the color goes out of your cheek, and your digestion is bad; if, in
short, you are one of the innumerable stoop-shouldered, sunken-eyed, and
sallow-faced army, throw physic to the dogs, and go into a gymnasium. Put
up the bells--ten pounders, perhaps, at first, but if you keep at it
perseveringly, you will raise a hundred in time. Learn to box, to fence,
to swing Indian clubs, to turn on the bar, and to walk. This last
accomplishment is really the most difficult of all. Not walking from your
house to your office or your shop, but getting over the ground in the true
pedestrian style, and counting the distance by miles, not rods. Hogan has
frequently made his thirty or forty miles a day, simply for recreation. It
is such walking as this that will put the blood into an active
circulation, and improve the whole system.
To be of any lasting benefit to a man, physical exercise must be constant
and continuous. It must not be practiced by fits and starts. Steady work
is the only thing which will bring the desired result. Surely, a man would
better devote an hour each day to the preservation of his health, than pay
exorbitant doctors' bills, or be forced to give up work altogether. The
Americans, of all people in the world, need this relaxation. They live
upon the constant strain. Mind and body alike are even worked. The rest
afforded by proper gymnastic exercise would be as grateful as it would be
beneficial. If we want to build up a strong and sturdy race of people, we
must attend to physical training as one of the most important things in
life.
Hogan is free from any hobby in this matter. He has no particular kind of
exercise to recommend other than that which may be found in all
gymnasiums. His argument simply is, that people shall develop their brawn
as well as brain, leaving the method to be adopted to individual choice.
A third question, which from time immemorial has agitated the public mind,
has received thorough and careful consideration by Ben Hogan. That
question is the social evil.
Let nobody question the right of such a man as the hero of this book has
been shown to be to pass judgment upon this all-important subject. It is
to men who have gained a practical knowledge of such matters that we must
turn for true reform. The theorizers who preach from the pulpits may be
all well enough in their doctrines, but the practice of what they preach
is impossible. As has been justly said, the wise legislator seeks to enact
such laws as may be put in effect. It would be an excellent thing, no
doubt, if murder and theft, and crime of every description, could be done
away with altogether; but no laws can be enacted to compass this desirable
end. The statute book can only throw about society a safeguard; it cannot
exterminate the evils to which men are prone.
So, then, in dealing with this perplexing question, we must look the facts
squarely in the face. It is a fact, to begin with, that women have
prostituted themselves in all stages of the world's history. It is a fact,
from the very nature of society, that this evil will continue so long as
the passions of men overmaster and control their reason. It is a fact,
that in every city and town of any considerable size in the United States
there are a greater or smaller number of houses devoted to the
propagation of illicit intercourse. It is a fact that all the laws which
thus far have been enacted with a view to suppressing this evil have
ignominiously failed of their purpose. It is a fact that man is addicted
to folly, and that woman is weak. Until society is reconstructed on a
different basis from the present, these things will undoubtedly remain as
they now are. How, then, shall the evil be met?
Ben Hogan holds the views of a man who has studied the question in all its
bearings. His conclusions may not be in accord with religious teachings
nor Sunday-school law makers; but I think they are strictly in accord with
common sense.
He claims at the outset that the social evil cannot be exterminated. The
one thing, therefore, left to do is to render it as harmless as possible,
and to surround it by such legal safeguards as may be practicable. First,
let the house of prostitution be regularly licensed. This is no new idea,
nor is it untried even in this country. In St. Louis and some other
Southern cities the plan has been adopted, certainly with better effects
than the abortive attempts to suppress such places altogether. On the
Continent of Europe it is the almost universal practice to grant such
licenses. Let us consider briefly the advantages arising from such a
course.
If a sporting house is regarded as a legal institution--which of course it
is, in case of a license--then the law is able to take it in hand, and
dictate such rules as it sees fit. This enables such places to become
respectable in so far as it is possible for them to be so under any
circumstances. A license necessarily carries with it certain conditions
and restrictions. Let these be made so binding and severe that it will be
impossible for any diseased woman to offer her body for prostitution. Let
a board of examining physicians call at the houses at regular intervals,
and make a thorough examination of the inmates.
Just here I fancy some over-righteous reader may be tempted to throw down
this volume in disgust.
"What!" exclaims such a one, "would you make this miserable traffic more
widespread than it already is?"
Common sense, and not morality, must dictate the answer. These places will
exist in spite of preachers and police. The sensible, worldly plan should
be to make them as productive of as little evil as possible. When a man
holds illicit intercourse with a woman, it is assumed that he breaks the
law of God; but, unfortunately, no means has ever yet been devised to
prevent a man from sinning. He is a free moral agent, responsible for his
acts, and accountable for the disposition which he makes of his days on
this earth. But while the laws of society cannot prevent a man from
breaking the laws of God, it can restrain him from rushing into those
excesses which may injure others beside himself.
Another advantage--and this also, it is to be remembered, is of purely a
worldly nature--arising from granting licenses to sporting houses would be
the revenue returned to the municipal government. Here again the pious
reader may take offense at the line of argument. And yet he thinks nothing
of profiting by the tax which is laid upon liquor dealers. Nevertheless,
rum is as certain an agent of the devil, according to the strict Puritanic
view, as anything in the world. "Wine and women are equally destructive to
the soul," say the preachers.
But the question cannot be argued upon the basis of morality. It must be
regarded, as has already been intimated, purely from a practical point of
view. It is a fact not be disputed, that if houses of this character were
compelled to pay a license, the money thus received would amount to a very
considerable sum, especially in the larger cities. This revenue might, if
desirable, be devoted to the erection of Magdalen houses, or even to the
foundation of Young Men's Christian Associations.
Then, again, if the houses were licensed, it would tend to make them more
orderly. As it is at present, they are outlaws at best, and therefore
there is no incentive to keep them within the bounds of decency. But if
their existence depended upon their conduct--that is, if the license was
to be revoked in case of any disorderly outbreak--then the proprietors
would see to it that order was maintained.
To recapitulate, the license system would secure freedom from sexual
diseases, a rich source of revenue to city governments, and comparative
freedom from scenes of violence and disorder.
Such are Ben Hogan's views with regard to the manner of conducting
sporting houses. Another, and perhaps more interesting phase of the case,
deals with the treatment of women who have gone astray.
In nine cases out of ten the fault lies not with the girl who follows the
downward path, but with the world. Without indulging in any of the stale
and sickly sentimentality respecting the guilt of the man who seduces a
woman, it may be said that society makes prostitutes by its method of
dealing with the erring. Take the example of a girl who has fallen from
the strict paths of virtue. Her offence, we may say, is the result of
thoughtlessness, of temptation, of passion. She finds herself robbed of
that priceless jewel which she has been taught, or should have been
taught, to regard as more sacred than anything else in life. Still she has
not become hardened or criminal by her one misstep. She might, at this
stage in her career, easily be reclaimed. But what is the treatment which
she receives? Her friends cast her off, her home is shut against her. Even
those nearest and dearest to her steel their hearts and regard her as a
stranger. What possible alternative is there left but to follow in the
path which she has already entered?
Let us suppose that this girl is young, innocent, and ignorant of the ways
of the world. She finds herself an outcast, wholly unfitted to fight the
stern battle of life single-handed. She has been taught nothing that will
avail her in this hour of extremity. Perhaps she is able to play on the
piano, to crochet, and to speak a few words of doubtful French. These
accomplishments afford but a sorry means for gaining an honest livelihood.
In sharp contrast to the misery and privation which present themselves on
the side of virtue, is the luxurious ease of a life of vice. Is it any
wonder that the weak girl chooses this latter path? It seems broad and
smooth and tempting to the feet. The other is dark and narrow, with sharp
thorns in the way and no sunshine ahead.
So the girl enters upon the course which a thousand have trod before her,
only to bring up at the inevitable goal of wretchedness and despair. She
cannot see the end at the beginning of her career. For a time she finds
all rosy and delightful. She lives in a whirl of excitement. If, now and
then, memories of the past--thoughts of home and friends thrust themselves
before her mind, she resolutely crushes them out with the bitter
reflection that those who should have been her protectors have cast her
aside. She follows the gay life for a brief time, drinks in the
intoxicating pleasures of the moment, and awakens, sooner or later, to
find herself stripped of her beauty, forsaken, and without a refuge
except that offered by gracious death. This picture is no exaggeration. It
finds its counterpart in nature every hour of every day of every year.
Now, think for a moment how differently this girl's life might have been
shaped had her first offense been forgiven. Suppose the parents of the
girl had said to her upon the discovery of her first wayward step:
"You have been tempted, and the temptation has proved greater than you can
bear. But we will forgive and forget. Let the past be wiped out forever.
Your life is still before you, and you may redeem yourself yet. Our love
shall cover your sin, and you shall still be to us a beloved and loving
child."
Words like these would save many a woman from a life of shame, but words
like these are too rarely spoken. Are those Christians who are so ready to
hurl the first stone? Have they forgotten the words of Him who bade
Magdalen of old to "Go, sin no more?"
The common error is to assume that when a woman once loses her virtue, she
thereby forfeits all claims to respect. With men sin is smoothed over, and
sometimes even admired. Stokes commits murder, and at the end of his term
of imprisonment returns to New York, mingles in the gay society which knew
him of old, and gazes critically through his opera-glasses from the box of
the theatre. He has committed a crime, to be sure, he is an ex-convict,
and all that; but society does not hesitate to receive him back with open
arms.
The worst libertine that walks the earth may still hold his head erect in
the charmed circles of aristocratic society. But the woman who once goes
astray is lost forever. The taint of suspicion is about her, and, strive
as she may, the doors of respectability, of decency, of an honest life,
are barred against her.
Why should this distinction be made between the wrong-doing of man and the
wrong-doing of woman? No other answer can be made to this question than
that society has so willed it. Now, society, in this matter, as in many
others, is at fault. The girl who has fallen from the upright course
should be given a fair chance to reform. She should not be branded with
the scarlet letter for a sin which, in many cases, is less her fault than
that of another.
This question of reform leads me to speak of another matter, which has
claimed much of Hogan's attention. All over the country there are
so-called asylums for fallen women, reform schools, and charitable
institutions without number. Besides these, are the prisons and jails,
which are supposed to be instrumental in making their inmates better. How
much good do you suppose these institutions accomplish.
Take the reform school, for example, as it is found in almost every county
in the more populous States. A boy who has been guilty of some minor
offense, or who is found difficult to manage, is committed to one of these
schools, professedly with a view to reformation. Instead of learning
anything good, he falls in with a class of boys more hardened than
himself, and from these he gets his first lesson in crime. Reference to
this very point has been made in the preceding pages, where it was
attempted to show that Hogan's brief sojourn in the Rochester Reform
School fell far short of reforming him.
If this is true of the institution in which boys alone are confined, it is
still more true of our prisons and penitentiaries. There the association
with hardened criminals does more to foster crime than any other one thing
in the world. A man may enter such a place comparatively innocent, but,
after serving out an average sentence, he will return to the world
thoroughly posted in the ways of evil. The great mistake lies in huddling
all classes of prisoners together like so many sheep, and treating them as
if they were all equally guilty. The young man, for example, who may have
been driven by necessity to commit his first theft, and who might, under
proper circumstances, be made a useful member of society, finds himself
sandwiched between a veteran cracksman and a life-long adventurer. From
such companionship it is only natural that he draws a fund of information
which fits him only for a career of crime. All the good that may have been
in him when he entered the institution is eradicated before he leaves.
If this be true in the case of men and boys, it is even more so with
respect to women. The latter find in the institutions, which are supposed
to be reformatory in their nature, the vilest kind of associations.
Indeed, it may be safely asserted that when a woman once enters a prison
or penitentiary, her utter ruin is inevitable.
Still another subject which has claimed Hogan's attention is that of
gambling. Here, again, his personal experience is large enough to enable
him to speak understandingly. A man who has himself lost and won thousands
of dollars over the green cloth, is perhaps better fitted to express
himself on the evil than one who has no practical knowledge of its
operations.
To begin with, no man who voluntarily enters a gambling room has a right
to grumble if he loses his money. He is tempting fortune, and fortune is
too fickle to be trusted without bitter disappointment. Even supposing
that a man is playing at a perfectly square game, his chances of winning
are less than even. But, in modern times, and in this country especially,
absolutely square games are rarely found. The general policy among all
professional gamblers is to take unfair advantage of their victims. Let it
be understood that Ben Hogan does not denounce all men who make a business
of gambling. He has counted among his personal acquaintances many of this
class who were naturally generous and noble-hearted men. But the very
nature of their occupation tends to blunt the sense of honor, and to make
them treacherous even to their best friends. Outside of the game they may
be genial, open-handed and companionable; but the power of the cards is
such that they lose these qualities as soon as they are engaged in play.
This dishonesty is, in short, but another form of the petty trickery
resorted to in almost all branches of business. The grocer sells stale
butter, if he can find a purchaser; the butcher cuts the bone so that it
weighs more than the meat; the baker makes his bread an ounce lighter than
the regulation weight, and the dry-goods dealer measures cloth so that
thirty-five inches make a yard. All these things are counted a species of
shrewdness by those who practice them. On precisely the same principle,
the gambler deals from the bottom of the pack, or stacks the cards
whenever he thinks he can do so without detection. In one case, the
dishonesty is called sharp bargaining; in the other, it is called
cheating. Both are equally disreputable, and, therefore, the gambler is
not to be signaled out for especial denunciation.
But knowing that he will be swindled, if possible, the man who gambles has
no claim for sympathy. When he enters a faro bank, for instance, he should
reflect that the men who are running the place do so in the expectation of
making money; if they cannot make it fairly, they will make it by
questionable means; and they will not be dainty in the selection of their
victims. If, therefore, the man loses his money, he has nobody but himself
to blame.
All these opinions are, it will be admitted, sound and reasonable. If Ben
Hogan's views could be infused into the public mind, the world would be
the better for it.