The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1877-05-17
SALOON TREATING AND DRUNK.
ENNESS.

! ENNESS.
Our excellent neighbor, the editor OF
the Psrkersburg Times, who Is one of
the most stsunch defenders of the beer
drinking customs of the Fstherland,
manfully and wisely condemns "the
foolish and dangerous habit of treating
in bar rooms to liquon."s He says, stop
this hsblt-Sand many would'b saved
from the first step to pecuniary and
moral ruin" "Thst habit doessnot pre-.
vail," says our ne:ghbor, ain any other
country but this; hence there are mor
drunkards in this conntry1 TO bo seen an
week than in all the countries
of Europe" But our friend must re
member that the Americans are pre-
eminently social people; and walking
up to the counter and taking your beer
alone hasn't social and genial air
about 1t.
enness IN America than in European
countries: We observe in reading an
able address recently delivered in Eng
land by Mr.. WALTER, the distinguished
editor OF the London Times who spent
some time in this country last year, that
ne called attention to the fact that be
! had seen but one case of native Ameri-
can drunkenness during his stay in the
United States. He attributed this singu.
lar phenomenon partly to the climate
partly to the better education and greater
seli-respect among the population, and
partly to lager beer. In Bavaria, he re-
marked, where the production of beer
was enormous, you can drink a psilful
without being the "worse of it." In
America he found the lager beer very
much like the Bsvarisn, comparatively
harmless, wholesome, and exhilsrating
The editor of the Chicago Inter. Ocean
say that while he cannot quite endorse
Mr.. WALTERs lefty idea Of native
American society, he is perfectly aware
that for one intoxicated man to be met
with any afternoon upon the streets of
Chicago, for example, you will meet fifty
or hundred in any CT the thoroughfares
of large city in England. Drinking
with US is undoubtedly confined to u
class, and the use of intoxicating
liquors is gradually coming to
be regarded in good society as a
reproach, if not positive dis.
grace. In England, wine, beer and
spirits of sli kinds are used by the tramps
MS by the artisan, by the merchant rs
by the lord. Gin is the drink of the
ragged poor, beer of the workingman,
spirits of the topper, and wine OF the gen.
tleman. Drinking is in order upon ali
occasions, at the private or public dinner,
the marriage, the christening, or the
funeral. Temperance people there are
many of them, but drinking is the rule.
Mr.. GUILD, Of Boston, in his interesting
book of travel, "Abroad Again desribes
three days visit to Ill Fnglisb
country gentlemsn's house, where
the party commenced the day at break
fast with tankard of ale, where they
had ale and light wines at luncheon, and
during dinner drank some eight or ten
glasses OF different wines, winding up
the night with hot brandy, gin, or
whisky punch. At the average AmerI-
can dinner table wine is scarcely ever
seen, and gentlemen even in bar rooms
seldom drink to excess. We have plenty
of drunkenness throughout the country
and to spare; but it is very mild disease
indeed to that which sfflcts the mother
countries"
So, our neighbor of the Tines will see
that other close observers differ with him
as to the relative sobriety of Americans
and those across the water. How much
of our drunken ness is produced by the
"foolish and dangerous habit of treating"
and how much our freedom from drunk
enness is due to lager beer, as Mr.. WAL
| TER see ms to think, we are scarcely pre-
pared to say. There Is no doubt that
beer is comparatively harmless bever-
age, and that our German fellow citizens
are remarkably free from the vice OF
brutal intoxicstion. Anything that will
wesn our people from stronger and more
dangerous potions is to be regarded with
fav Or, and if beer is to prove the means,
with other incentives, of bringing about
this much-to-be- desired result, its use can
be tolerated. Mr.. Walters idea, how
ever, that pailiul can be drunk with
out the guzzler being the worse for it, is
a statement that will be received with
| doubt.
a. L