The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1878-08-28
European Letter.
BRussEILs, August 7th. 187!

BRUSSELS, August 9TH. 1873.
| To the Editor of the Morristown Gazette
There is a belief in our own coun :
try that there is scarcely any drank
enness in Europe, and that this
plague is peculiar to America. /
have frequently read as much in
American papers, and in letters of
tourists, and have heard Americans
on this side assert that they have
never seen q drunken man in Eu-
rope. I can only say those Ameri-
cans who have not seen a great deal
of inebriety here have been almost
miracnlously preserved from a sad
and disgusting but very common
spectacle. There may not be as
many persons found dead drunk, as
the saying is, here as in America
but much larger proportion of the
people are always in state of semi
intoxication, or it may be said, never
quite sober. But it is hard to under
stand how anyone can have lived in
Europe, for even a short time, and
not have seen men dead drunk. I
have seen them in Paris too drunk
too keep their feet, and while in
Frankfort on the Main, last week,
| saw, in the space of FIVE minutes, two
men carried to the lookup SO help.
lessly intoxicated that they could
not lift hand The manifestation
of drunkenness in the European and
the American is very different, and
the infrequency arising from in
toxication here is. think, one
reason why it is SO generally be.
Iieved that there Is less of the vice
on this than on the other side of the
Atlantic. So thoroughly have ages
Of oppression. and rigid subsection
to authority, trained the European
nature that, even In moments of ex.
liberation. and even of maddest ex.
element, he never forgets the terror
of law This [ think is not inoon.
sistent With the fact that large
proportion OF our criminal popula.
tion is of foreign birth. The sudden
transition to a new country, and au
entirely new life. the elevation to
citizenship and peership so utterly
confounds his imported ideas of po-
litical and social relations that he
runs amuck. and the recall Of ages
of despotism falls. as it were. upon
the liberator.
1t has been frequently said in
favor of European institutions and
habits that they have no bars, that
they have not the vile practice of
walking up like Americans and
swallowing a drink ut a bar. but
have, instead, gardens and saloons
where they so with their families,
and set down and drink at leasure.
1t is difficult to see wherein the su-
perior virtue Of the European Gus.
tom, now largely introduced in
America, consists. Ifa man must
drink it would seem that the sooner
he swallows 1t down and goes about
his business the better.
I believe if there could be compil.
ed accurate statistics, not of the
men punish ed for crimes of drunk
enness. but through some impossi-
BILE intoxicometer that would pre-
cisely gauge the amount of inebria-
tiOn. be its manifestation in indiviu-
ais extreme or mild; 1t would be
found that there is a much higher
average according to population in
Europe than in Alnerica. The usual
manifestations OF intoxication in
Enrep can countries is loud excited
talking and gesticulation and casual
Observers, ignorant OF the language
are disposed to attribute this to ma
tional habit. vivacity. and good
hnmor. But those acquainted with
the demon discern other signs. such
signs as would cause a lawyer or
a physician to lose some practice in
| America. make what Is called q
marrying man" less eligible in the
eyes of present parents. ~