The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-07-06

Sunday Lagcr-How tho Excise Conn
mtssioners Acquired Their Experience.
We had thought that the question "Does
lager intoxicated" had taken its place among
those unanswerable historical conundrums
which the popular mind is fond Of refreshing
itself with, such as those that relate to the
chastity of Mary, Queen of Scots, the pater-
nifty of the Man in the Iron Mask, and the
identity of the individual who struck Billy
Patterson But the martyrdom and constancy
of Mayor Havemeyer and the Excise Com
missioners forbid our indulging this convic-
ton. That lager is intoxicating may be &C
cepted as an unquestionable fact until later
and deeper Investigations by an equally self
sacrificing body of public officers shall point to
different conclusion. We are sorry that the
Commissioners arrived at such decision, for
we can imagine that the experience which
seemed to them to justify it must have been
painful in its later moments, however pleasant
its incipiency may have been. But then, after
all, what do the Commissioners mean? Do
they mean that the power of lager to intoxi-
cate them is to be taken as the exponent of
its power to intoxicate everybody else?
OF do they mean that they mo-
nopolize the virtue of self-restraint, and
that of the thousands who imbibe lager on
Sundays few are able to drink within bounds?
Ninon de PEnclos used to declare that beef
steak intoxicated her. and perhaps it did; but
it would not be fair on that account to charge
4 ubo oh LoI
partially for sirloins and porter-houses. No
beer on Sunday! Why, it is like landscape
without foliage OF world without an atmos-
phere. The moon is not more naked of life
than peerless Sunday among the New York
Germans would be devoid Of enjoyment and
not among the Germans only, but among
thousands Of our native population, who have
helped to acclimatize the drink and to make it
almost as much a national beverage here as
in the land of the Teutons. And pray how
did the Commissioners arrive at their sapient
decision? Do they know of their own knowl-
intoxicating, or are they trusting to vague
hearsay? Why shall their reform stop here2
Upon their principle Cowper is altogether
wrong when he speaks Of q cup of tea as the
cup that "cheers but not inebriates." Doubt
less there are hundreds of clergymen and
women who habitually get as drunk on tea as
the majority of those who limit themselves to
lager beer do on that beverage We are
afraid Cowper himself drank too much tea,
and perhaps little good lager would have
given him just the tone which he lacked
There is no doubt that some people drink
more lager than is good for them, and have to
suffer for their indiscretion in various ways.
There is no doubt that some of the pleasure
parties of Sunday show tendency to convert
that day into one of revelry and go home on
Sunday evening in q demoralized and dis
reputable condition. There is no doubt but
that in certain places where Sunday music is
announced the beer is the only attraction, and
that scenes are sometimes transacted there
which Justly offend the decent and the orderly.
But it is also true that the simultaneous enjoy
ment of good music and good lager-the Co
ordination, so to speak, of beer and Meyer
beers to thousands of New Workers q cheap,
refreshing and innocent pleasure, to deprive
them of which is to do them wrong, morally
and socially. Let the Mayor and his asso-
ciates make their rounds again, in an impartial
and untrammelled spirit and we feel pretty GER
tain they will arrive at o conclusion different
from their first. We, for one, do not believe
that they did get intoxicated by lager.
The bad music they heard may have
got into their heads-end we all know
how difficult it is to get o tune
out of ones head when 1t has once got
lodged there--or, perhaps, q sunstroke may
have blistered their judgments; but to throw
the blame upon lager seems ct once unwise
and ungrateful. Nay, we rather take the
present action of the Commissioners an proof
that lager Is not Intoxicating They had exi.