The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-06-02
POETRY AND DRUNKENNESS.

From the N. Y. Tribune.
Justin Mccarthy, in late excellent article
upon the points of difference between Eng
ishmen and Americans asserts that so far
as his observation goes, Americans are the
soberest race under the sun. 'No English
man, he says mot a professed teetotaller,
dreams of dining without a glass of wine or
ale. In America the ice-water for dinner is
the rule the wine or beer the rare excep-
ton" Mr.. Mccarthy notes, however, the
existence everywhere of bar-rooms for the
use of respectable class here, and their con-
slant use, while ''no Englishman whatever
above the level of q coal HEAVIER or o coster-
monger walks into bar-room at midday and
swallows ardent spirits. The barr-ooms of
the Fifth Avenue Hotel or the st. Nicholas
would be useless institutions in hotels of that
class in London" He is keen sighted enough,
too, to detect the cause of this seeming con-
tradiction in our habits. 'When an Ameri-
can drinks he drinks to satisfy certain crav-
ing; to supply q certain supposed necessity;
not for the Joy of drinking or the sweetness
of prolonged sensation"
In this symptom of the lack of sensuous-
ess among US Mr.. Mccarthy finds matter for
regret, which, we confess, our prejudices will
not allow us to share. Sixty years ago wine
or brandy were as common ad juncts to every
meal here as in England; liquor was brought
into every rite of hospitality. We drank over
the newborn baby, and over the corpse in
its coffin No bargain, no social call even
between women, was complete without the
offered glass of wine; even ministers of the
Gospel kept the usual iqueur stand upon
their sideboards. 1t is not fifty years since
the motion to refuse the sum customarily ap-
propriated by Presbyterian Synod for the use
of liquor at their annual assembly was bitterly
opposed as Pharisaic and fanatical. That so
great change has taken place in this regard
among the educated classes, and that drinking
is almost altogether confined to those who
drink to satisfy certain physical craving, we
are glad to acknowledge, even if we have to
plead guilty that it is owing to a lack of de-
sirable sensuousness among u.s. We venture
to differ with Mr.. Mccarthy when he ascribes
this deficiency in our character to the Puritan
element. 1.-The man of the Northern and
Northwestern States, he says, has, to my
thinking, less of the sensuous about him than
any other man of any other nation. In his
eating and drinking, his art, his literature,
the Joy of the senses has little part. The
deep absorbing Joy in beautiful sight be-
cause it is beautiful rarely makes manifest its
presence here" Now the Puritan element
has in truth very little to do to-day with the
men of the North and hwest-certainly
nothing so far as its old acrid ascetic influence
! is concerned. A certain thrift and driving
| energy it has undoubtedly inoculated the
| New England settlers with, wherever they
may be; but if Mr. Mccarthy had remained
| longer among us he would have perceived
that an utterly revolutionary reaction against
its iron rule has long ago taken place among
| them in both literature and religion. The
men most likely to find beauty its own excuse
for being, or to be capable of deep, absorb
ing Joy in a useless beautiful object, are the
descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers 1t is
among the hard-headed and hard-handed
Western settlers, not emigrants from New
England, that all high thoughts of heaven
and earth are brought down, squared, aud
measured by the inexorable rule of common
sense. Those unfortunate pilgrims in the
| Mayfower have been saddled with all our
national vices and virtues; from this crime,
our lack of consciousness, at least, they can
now go scot-free.
Mr.. Mccarthy himself gives the real cause
of it when he hints at the utter absence OF
caste and traditional usage among US.
Everything is on trial here: everything is
possible" Hence follows the perpetual fric-
tion, striving, clambering over each Others
shoulders: party conflict, individual conflict.
The American is never, like the Englishman
born into social niche; he has not only his
bread and butter to make, but his position
not only to conquer the certain place, but to
convince everybody that he holds it. Nothing
goes without saying here, as in communitie
long graded into ranks. A mans wealth
piety, good breeding, must be, so to speak
thrust down his neighbor's throat befor
he is accredited with it. At least that il
our ordinary belief and course of conduct
What time have we to ''loaf and invite ou
souls?" Mr.. Mccarthy must see the unrea
sonableness of his demands. ''The Yiennese
with his yard of thin, bright beer, has nothin,
better to do than to njoyit Robby Barns, sur
of dying plowman or a gauger, had leisur
TO apostrophize daisy or a mouse; but if h
/ had lived in Iowa he would have had No
, only his wheat crop to think of, but hi
place tochoose and struggle for, from Pres
dent to prothonotary. After while we wi
| L.. nl.lo,- IA ,.-iaer md InArhans will AZ