Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1874-05-14

ment trial OF, say, ten years, so
that we may see whether it is, or is
not, the lager beer that saves the
Characterization from our gaunt
and pallid appearance in the flesh,
and makes him so much the superior
of other foreigners in good nature
and good order. 1t would make q
far more conclusive experiment of
it, for the Americans to change hab-
it's with the German, we taking their
lager, and they taking our whisky,
ice-water and hot bread. La ten
years they would be as lean, dyspep-
tic, nervous. angular and acrid as we
are.
SO while. on the one hand, the
total abstinence" Americans arc be-
ing consumed by dyspepsia, for the
want of some nutritious beverage
like the German beer or the French
wine, the drinking Americans are
being devoured by whisky and "mix-
ed drinks" And nature, as though
to set her seal of impartial reproba-
ton upon the irrational behavior of
both parties makes them look so
much alike that you cannot tell one
from the other. They have the same
cadaverous physiognomy, and the
same irraecible temper.
THE WINE DRINKING COUNTRIES.
Hon. oseph Medill, of Chicago,
who is writing series of very in
teresting letters from abroad to the
Chicago Tribune, writes as follows
upon the subject Wine vs.. Whisky.
He dates his letter at Naples, Italy,
from which we quote:
While wine is the common bever-
age of the Neapolltans, they are
rarely or ever seen intoxicated. In
the month | have been in this city, L
have yet to see q drunken man or
woman nor can L hear of any.
Italians assure me that it is a very
rare occurrence, and almost wholly
restricted to sailors. Drunkenness
is regarded with species of horror
and astonishment, and sinks the per-
son guilty of it to the level of a
criminal
As the government levies small
tax on wine, the aggregate of this
impost exhibits by computation, the
total consumption in Naples, which
appears to be about 100000 of
francs worth per annum, which is
81, 00O, 900 worth for 800,0 inhabl-
tants or Leg per capita. Compare
this expenditure with the $40, OOO,-
900 year spent in Chicago, mainly
for whisky, by population of only
two-thirds of that of Naples. There
are about 1000 places in Naples
where wines are sold, against 5000
saloons in Chicago. The Naples
wines contain an average OF A per
cent. of alcohol, which is about one
tenth of that contained in Chicago
ardent, though substantially the same
as that in lager beer. Throughout
Italy this mild stimulant is the COM
mon beverage, in connection with
coffee and milk; and the people
think it no more harmful to imbibe
the one rhan the other, for the SIM
pie reason that neither the fact nor
the idea Of intoxication is connected
with the drinking of wine, more than
with drinking of coffee. One may
travel over Italy in every direction,
for whole year, and not see or hear
of q native in state OF intoxication.
The best test of the matter is found
in the police reports. In the cities
of the United States, nine-tenths of
the arrests made by the police are
for ''drunk and disorderly," and oth~
err assigned causes traceable to whls-
ky. In Italy not one arrest in q
hundred is, or can be, attributed to
intoxication, and the few "drunks"
are mostly sailors, and they chiefly
English, Irish, and American sea-
men. The national police reports,
made up for all Italy, for 1873, and
recently published, classified the of
fences. The majority are for petty
larceny, and other crimes against
property. A large number were for
highway robbery, many for assina-
ton, shooting, stabDing, fighting and
auarrels-for the Italians are an ex-
citeable people, and too much given
to the use of the knife in the settle
ment of their personal disputes.
But, of the total number of arrests,
footing up over a quarter of mil
lion during the year, hardly one per
cent. was made for inebriation. 1t
would be as utterly impossible to in
augurate temperance or teetotal
crusade in Italy, as it would to in
augurate one in America against the
popular consumption of tea and cof
fee. An attempt of the kind would
be met with the same feeling and the
same kind of argument, for the reas-
on that the terrible evils of drunken
ness are unknown and unfelt.
The demon of intoxication has
few subjects, in this country, to at
tract much attention, or arouse much
opposition. In Great Britain it is
very different. There the traveller
will encounter drunken men and
women in ever city, and see the po-
lice dragging them off to prison, and
hear drunken quarrels going on in
the dram-shops; and, in the quarters
occupied by the laboring poor, he
must shut his eyes if he would not
behold sights and scenes of vice and
squalor caused by drunkenness, too
horrible for description. Great Bri-
tain and Ireland are whisky -drink-
ing countries, where people pour dis
titled alcohol, burning hot, down
their throats; while in Italy, they
content themselves with the mild
juice of their vineyards, which ex-
hilerates, but not inebriates; which
satisfies the cravings of human ap-
petite for stimulation, without de-
throning reason and converting men
into maniacs j. M,