The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-07-26

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Drunkenness Among Women.
The New York Found Table has an
article on the revival of intemperance,
which has lately taken place, and as
serts that the ravages of the vice are
particularly noticeable among women.
1t says: Drinking is again becoming
fashionable, and the ladies are respon-
sible for this retrogression. Twoweeks
ago we had occasion to notice the prev
alence of drinking among ladies at our
watering 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 ac-
customed to drink liquors. The sight
of a tipsy or intoxicated woman is not
uncommon at the seaside, 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 New
port, as usual, but at an asylum for
1nebriates. And we assert upon the
same authority that the vice of fashion,
able drinking is now more prevalent
among the ladies than among the gem
tlemen of this country. .a
In support of these statements, in
stances of the most distressing charac-
ter have been brought to notice. 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 point to furnish their
customers with drink, and some of the
most fashionable mGisonS DIES 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. Atthe 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 anybody who will
take the trouble to visit one of these re-
sorts may see we'll 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 equal
ly true. Our fashionable female drink
claret punches, and sherry cOblers.
They can obtain such beverages at din
ner or at evening parties, and when
left to themselves they prefer stronger
spirits. Whisky and brandy are the
favorite drinks with these ladies'. 1t
may be true, that a woman is very far
gone upon the downward road when
she can order and drink such stimu-
lants in a public saloon; but still hum
dreds 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, "lf
you do not see what you want ask for
1t" gives the hint to the initiated.
In dress makers bill the significant
item "small trimmings" often covers
up the expense of liquors which the
lady has ordered through the modiste
who panders to her VitiHted taste. At
the watering places bribe to the wait
ef procures secret supply of liquor,
which, by the connivance of the land
lord, is charged as f'extra luncheons.n -
Thus the poor infatuated women find
no difficulty in obtaining the means of
'intoXication, and often the man of bu-
siness. engrossed with his cares, and
thoughtlessly unsuspicious of the SER
covers to his horror that his wife or
daughter has become a confirmed
drunkard, and that all his efforts to
reform her are utterly useless.
FIVE could unroof the houses of this
and other cities we would exhibit to
the reader instances of female intoXi-
cation that would 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 mer-
chants, have been seen grossly intoXi-
Gated in Broadway stages and upon the
public streets. Many a home, appar-
emily most elegant and attractive, is
rendered n perfect pandemonium by
one of the lady inmates through this
weakness. The bellies of fashfona BILE
watering places, this summer, who sit
upon the piazzas late at night, and
think 1t very amusing to be made
funny" by drinking with gentlemen,
little know the fate that is in store for
them. The painted cOurtesans who
fiaunt in low groggeries and nerve
themselves for their foul vocation by
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.
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How MUCH TALKING WIZ Do.-Some
Frenchman of a statistical turn ofmind,
who evidently has but little to do, pub
fishes in Havre paper some curious
statistics ofthe average talk OF men and
women. He has discovered that an
ordinary middle aged man spends three
hours per day in conversation, calctI-
lated at the rate of one hundred words
per minute, or twenty-nine octave pag-
es per hour, which would amount to
600 pages per week, or fifty-two big vol
umes per year. Having ascertained
these facts as regards the masculine