The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-27 00:00:00

Drunkenness Among American Women.

The New York Round Table, a journal which
occupies a similar position in America to that of the
Saturday Review in this country, has an article re-
garding the vice of drunkenness among American
women. Our influential contemporary says :
" Two weeks ago we had occasion to notice the
prevalence of drinking among ladies at our water-
ing-places; but it is not alone at the watering-
places that the ladies thus indulge. At their
own homes, at the stores, and at those public
nuisances called ladies' restaurants they are accus-
tomed to drink liquors. The sight of a tipsy or
intoxicated woman is not uncommon at the sea-side,
and it is by no means extraordinary upon Broad-
way. We have the best authority for stating that
some of the most elegant ladies of our leading cities
will pass this summer not at Saratoga or Newport,
as usual, but at an asylum for inebriates. And we
assert upon the same authority that the vice of
fashionable drinking is now more prevalent among
the ladies than among the gentlemen of this
country. In support of these statements instances
of the most distressing character have been brought
to our notice. Some women trace their degradation
to a natural appetite for spirits, and others to a
habit formed during a long illness, when they were
ordered to drink liquors as a tonic. Once developed,
the taste seems less controllable in women than in
men. The ladies drink in secret. They have pri-
vate bottles hidden about the house, in spite of the
vigilance of doctors, nurses, husbands, and fathers.
Certain dress-makers make it a point to furnish
their customers with drink, and some of the most
fashionable maisons des modes are, in fact, fashionable
drinking houses. In some stores bottles of wine
are also kept on hand for lady shoppers, and in
others the merchants allow their boys to be sent to
the nearest bar-room for liquor when ladies desire
it. At the so-called ladies' restaurants all sorts of
fancy drinks are as freely ordered by and supplied
to women as creams and ices used to be, and any-
body who will take the trouble to visit one of these
resorts may see well-dressed, fashionable ladies
enter unattended and call for liquors at all hours of
the day.
" These are startling facts ; but there are others
still more surprising and equally true. Our
fashionable female drinkers do not care so much
for wines and claret punches and sherry-cobblers.
They can obtain such beverages at dinner or at
evening parties, and when left to themselves they
prefer stronger spirits. Whisky and brandy are
the favourite drinks with these ladies. It may be
true that a woman is very far gone upon the down-
ward road when she can order and drink such
stimulants in a public saloon ; but still hundreds
of women in our best society do this every day.
Some of the saloons which they frequent do not
have the stronger liquors upon the bill-of-fare, but
a neat little sign which reads, "If you do not see
what you want, ask for it," gives the hint to the
initiated. In dress-makers' bills the significant
item "small trimmings" often covers up the ex-
pense of liquors which the lady had ordered through
the modiste who pandered to her vitiated taste. At
the watering-places a bribe to the waiter procures
a secret supply of liquor, which, by the connivance
of the landlord, is charged as " extra luncheons."
Thus the poor infatuated woman finds no difficulty
in obtaining the means of intoxication, and often
the man of business, engrossed with his cares, and
thoughtlessly unsuspicious of the serpent that has
crept into his Eden, discovers to his horror that his
wife or daughter has become a confirmed drunkard,
and that all his efforts to reform her are utterly
useless.
" If we could unroof the houses of this and other
cities we would exhibit to the reader instances of
female intoxication that make angels weep. Mothers
of families are breaking the hearts of their husbands
and daughters by this vice. Girls of eighteen, the
daughters of our most respectable merchants, have
been seen grossly intoxicated in Broadway stages
and upon the public streets. Many a home, appa-
-1 rend), most elegant and attractive, is rendered a
perfect pandemonium by one of the lady inmates
through this weakness. The belles at fashionable
watering-places, this summer, who Eit upon the
piazzas late at night, and who think it very amusing
to be made funny' by drinking with gentlemen,
little know the fate that is in store for them. The
painted courtesans who flaunt into low groggeries
and nerve themselves for their foul vocation by
glasses of gin are hardly so much to be pitied as
these respectable ladies who secretly indulge the
same craving for stimulants, but who are unable to
conceal the effects of their indulgences. The cour-
tesan has fallen so low that her drinking can only
injure herself ; but the respectable woman brings
disgrace and shame upon her family, her friends,
and the circle in which she moves. From cases
which have come to our knowledge we learn that no
superiority of intellect or of social position is suffi-
cient to guard a lady against this vice. The loving
remonstrances of relatives, the best prescriptions of
physicians, the prayers and advice of pastors, the
agonies of remorse, and the strictest resolutions to
reform are ineffectual to overcome au appetite that
grows by what it feeds upon. The artificial life of
most American women, and the exhaustion that
follows their reckless disregard of the rules of health
create the necessity for stimulants, and when the
habit of indulgence is once formed the inebriate
asylum seems to be the only permanent remedy."

THE WORKING CLASSES, exclaims the Examiner
—as if there were any class worth mentioning that is not
a working class !
ELIHU BURRITT, who studied while he worked as
a young blacksmith at his anvil, according to a weekly
contemporary, learned something of Latin, Greek, Hebrew,
French, Spanish, Italian, German, Swedish, Norwegian,
Icelandic, Welsh, Gaelic, and Russian.
A HINT FOR MR. BEALES.—According to a new
Reform Bill proposed by the King of Prussia, "every citi-
zen of unblemished character, who has passed his twenty-
fifth year, is an elector."
The Delhi Railway between Umritsur and the
River Bee, as it is stated, is.making considerable pro-
gress under the active supervision of the chief en-
gineer and guidance of the railway staff. Two
miles of rails beyond Umritsur are already laid, and
the earthworks and bridges are in a fair way of
completion,