It was the way of the men who lived the life.

Did I wish to live the life, I must live it the way they did.

It was by virtue of drinking that I gained that partnership and comradeship with Nelson.

Had I drunk only the beer he paid for, or had I declined to drink at all, I should never have been selected by him as a partner.

He wanted a partner who would meet him on the social side, as well as the work side of life.
I abandoned myself to the life, and developed the misconception that the secret of John Barleycorn lay in going on mad drunks, rising through the successive stages that only an iron constitution could endure to final stupefaction and swinish unconsciousness.