Middletown transcript., 1878-08-31
European Letter.
tFrom our regular correspondent)
BRUSSELS Aug, 7th. 1915

:,
There is belief in our own country
that there is scarcely any drunkenness
in Europe, and that this plague is pc.
culiar to America. have frequently
read as much in American papers,
and in letters of tourists, and I have
heard Americans on this side assert
that they have never seen a drunken
man in Europe. l can only say that
those Americans who have not seen a
great deal of inebriety here have been
almost miraculously preserved from a
sad and disgusting but very common
spectacle. There may not be as many
persons found dead drunk, as the say
ing is, here as in America; but a
much larger proportion of the people
are always in state of semi-intoxica-
tion, or, it may be said, never quite
sober. But it is hard to understand
how any one can have lived in Europe,
for even a short time, and not have
seen men dead drunk. | have seen
them in Paris too drunk to keep their
feet, and while in Frankford-on-the-
Main, last week, l saw, in the space of
five minutes, two men carried to the
lookup so helplessly intoxicated that
they could not lift hand. The man.
Hesitation of drunkenness in the Euro
pean and the American is very differ
ent, and the infrequency of crimes
arising from intoxication here is, |
think, one reason why it so generally
believed that there is less of the vice
on this than the other side of the Allan
tic. So thoroughly have ages of oppres-
sion, and rigid subjection to authority,
trained the European nature that, in
moments of exhileration, and even of
maddest excitement, he never forgets
the terror of law. This I think, is
not inconsistent with the fact that a
large proportion of our criminal pop
ulation is of foreign birth. The sud-
den transition to a new country, and
an entirely new life, the elevation to
citizenship and peership so utterly
confounds his imported ideas of politi-
cal and social relations that he runs
a muck and the recoil of ages of des-
potism, falls, as it were, upon the lib
orator.
It 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 at bar, but have, instead, gar
dens and saloons where they go with
their families, and sit down and drink
at leisure. 1t is difficult to see where
in the superior virtue of the European
custom, now largely introduced in
America, consists. IF a man must
drink, it would seem that the sooner
he swallows it down and goes about
his business, the better.
l believe if there could be compiled
accurate statistics, not Of the men
punished for crimes of drunkenness,
but through some impossible intoxi-
cometer that would precisely gauge
the amount of inebriation, be its-man-
Hesitation in individuals extreme or
mild; it would be found that there is
a much higher average according to
population in Europe than in America.
The usual manifestation of intoxica-
ton in European countries is loud ex-
cited talking and gesticulation, and
casual observers, ignorant of the Ian
guage, are disposed to attribute this
to national habit, vivacity, and good
humor But those acquainted with
the demon discern other signs, such
signs as would cause a lawyer or
physician to lose some practice in
America, or make what is called a
marrying man" less eligible in the
eyes of prudent parents.
Wine bibing and beer bibing is a
universal habit in France, Germany,
and Belgium. Men, wo-
men and children, all drink, and some
of them drink nearly all the time. I
do not think the great tun at Heidel-
berg would last some families a great
while. In France wine is the bever-
age of the rich and the poor, and [ do
not think that it is an exaggeration to
say that the French drink mofe wine
than water. Americans, no matter
what may have been their prejudices
and pledges, as a usual thing, take to
wine and beer drinking as soon as
they have been month in Europe.
It is said that the water of many Eu-
ropean cities, and especially of Paris,
S not good, and our countrymen and
give this as an excuse
or their fall from abstinence. But, [
10 not think there is anything the
natter with the water except lack
# ice. The water IN Paris is perfectly
lear, sweet, and not very warm even
n the hottest weather. G. A. S.
It is when dry goods clerk of
linety-seven pounds weight attempts
o help from a farm wagon farmers
wife of 2OS pounds weight, that the