Associations of men leading to excitement of any kind stimulate them to invite each other to drink as a social custom.

Former inebriates should avoid all forms of excitement.

Said a former politician, who has not drank for five years: "If I was to go back to politics, and allow matters to take their natural course, I should soon drift again into drunkenness." "_Idleness_," says the French proverb, "is the mother of all vices;" hence the advantage and importance of being actively employed.
_Working in communities._--There are no men more inclined to drunkenness than shoemakers, hatters and those in machine shops.

Shoemakers are especially difficult to reform, as they incite each other to drink, and club together and send out for beer or whisky.
_Use of excessive quantities of pepper, mustard and horse-radish._--No person can use biting condiments to the same degree as drunkards; and reformed men must largely moderate their allowance, if they expect to keep their appetite under for something stronger.

Tavern-keepers understand that salt and peppery articles, furnished gratis for lunch, will pay back principal and profit in the amount they induce men to drink.
_Loss of money or death in the family._--These are among the most severe of all the trials to be encountered by the reformed drunkard.