Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1871-06-30

Drinking Among Business Men.
From the New York Times.
The London journals which late
ly made an onslaught on drinking
among ladies, and makes a similar
charge, with increased emphasis,
upon the business community. 1t
declares that the use Of spirituous
liquors among merchants, bankers
and brokers has increased of late in
the most alarming manner. "The
American bar SYSTEM" it informs
us, "which in New York and else
where has been CARRIED to height
at which, though being so tlagrant-
ly scandalous and intolerable, it has
almost begun to cure itself, has, un-
fortunately, taken root in London"
"Secrel drinking among the mer-
camille classes dis free and uncon-
trolled;" and the "potations of city
men are terribly on the increase"
The reasons for this are several and
manifest. One, it appears, is the
telegraph. Formerly there was an
interval between sending his letters
and getting replies, when a man of
business could mediate calmly on
his affairs. Now, all things are de-
cidcd otf-hand, and consequently
there is kept up constant fever of
excitement. Hence, nervous ex-
haustion ensues, and stimulants are
resortcd to. Another reason for ex-
cess is that business men, instead
of living over their counting houses
or shops, as was once the custom,
now almost invariably live several
miles away. Most of them come to
the city by rail, which works ill in
various ways. In the first place,
there is constant anxiety about
missing the train, so that nervous
fatigue begins with the day. Then
the journey by rail is pronounced
untavorable to digestion, and, ac-
cording to some men, if taken every
day, is injurious to the brain as well
as the stomach and nerves. Be-
sides these disturbing agencies,
"overwork," the ''strain of bust
ness" and the "anxietics of specula-
tion," arc set down as originating
and nourishing those physical and
mental conditions that lead men to
seek the consultations of alcohol, and,
ultimately, to become slaves to it's
fascinating influence.
There is no doubt some truth in
this, although it is hardly truth of
the sort that warrants the air of dis
covcry with which the Suturday
Recie'c announces it. Deplorable
and extensive as is the habit of
drinking in our own business COM
munity, we believe it has grown to
be as bad, or perhaps even worse,
in London. If it is worse there, the
reason is clear. Most Americans
who drink before dinner do not
drink at or after dinner, but the
Englishmen who drink before din
ner are pretty certain to do the 9th
er as WELL There cannot be qucs-
ton that it is safer and healthier,
if men must drink at all, to drink at
or after dinner than before it. 1t is
equally certain, however, that those
who do only one Of the two are bet
ter off than those who do both.
Thus the city men in London, who
not only take "nips" and "pcgs"
throughout the morning, but swal-
lows a great quantity Of wine with
his dinner, it is disadvantage com
pared with his New York brother,
who confines himself to the former
set of stimulants. With both class
es, the growing habit Of concentra-
ting the entire business of the day
into a small fraction of it is, no
doubt prejudicial. Early-closing
movements are salutary in respect
of saving the physical rather than
the mental powers, just as are the
organizations for shortening the
hours of labor in still humber So
cial strata. But with men who do
their entire days work with their
heads, the more deliberately it is
done the better. Generally speak
ing, given set of brains can only
healthily secret given amount of
thought in a stated time. If you
habitually overwork the mind, or,
SO to speak, over-focalize its ener-
gies, you induce disease. It is plain
that many men who do not care a
straw for the exultation of drink, or
for its good fellowship, or for its
flavor, resort to it to "sustain" them
selves while habitually subjecting
their powers to excessive strain.
The competitions Of business are in
this way sapping and running many
noble lives. And men of the world
well know how numerous are the
cases of sudden death in our bust
ness community-cases imputed to
"heart disease" ""paralysis," and the
like, that are really the result of
drinking, secret or other, which has
been rcsorted to for the sake of keep
ing up strength in the unremitting
and arduous battle of life.
Equally well do men of the world
know how much easier it is to point
out these evils than to correct them,
to suggest remedies than to enforce
their application. The dangerous
theory that alcoholic stimulus can
be better borne by brains that are ac
lively and perpetually at work-it,
indeed, such stimulus is not posi-
lively beneficial to such brains-has
been much disseminated oflate, and
is undoubtedly very mischievous.
Perhaps the temperance movement
went too far, and, like all excess, is
now followed by reaction; but what