The daily gazette., 1878-08-22
0urEurOpean Letter.
(from our Regular Correspondent.)
10 " (aRrssE1s, August 7th, 1873.

(From our Regular Correspondence
10 W ,BRgssELs, August 7th, 1873.
There is belief in our country that
thefe is scarcely Iany drunkenness ip
|AiPhS ahd That iBis plague is sypeeu}iar
to America. / have frequently read as
much IN a American papers and in letters
Of tourists, and have heard Americans
ION this side assert, that they have never
seen drunken man in Europe. / can
only sayth those Americans who have
NOT seen 9eatd deal Of finebriety here have
been hlhest mir aculously preserved from
asads ah' disgusting butsvery common
spectacle. There may not be very many
peHons R1n1 dead drunk, as the saying
Is, here as in, America; but much lar
ger propaI1ion- OF tho people are always
if @ state of semi-intoxication, ,,or, it may
~ said, never quite sober. But il is hard
70 understand how anyone can have lived
in Europe, for even short time, and not
have seen men dead drunk. / have seen
them i'll Paris too drunk to keep their
feet, anJ wlib III lFrmkfort4o ain
last week, i saw, in the space of five
minutes, 1&o MEN cafriedt6 the lottltiup
$50 helplessly intoxicated that they could
not lift a hand. The manifestation of
drunkenness In European and American
is very different, and the infrcquency of
crimes ar sing from intoxicatiou here is,
nh
believed that there is less of the vice on
this than on the other side Of the Attain
tic. So t thoroughly have ages of oppres-
sion, and rigid subjection to authority,
Trained the European nature that, even in
moments Of exhilaration, and even of
maddest excitement, he never forgets the
terror Of law. This think is not incon-
sistent with the fact that large proper
tion of our criminal population is of for
eign BIRTH. The sudden transition to a
new country, and an entirely new life,
the elevation TO citizenship and peership
so utterly confounds his imported ideas
of political and social relations that he
runs amuck and the recoil of ages of
despotism falls, as it were upon the liber-
ator.
1t has been frequently said in favor of
European institutions and habits that
they have no bars, that they have not
fhe vi le of practice of walking up like
Americans and swallowing q drink at n
bar, but have, Instead gardens and sa-
looms where they go with their families,
and sit down and drink at leisure. 1t is
difficult 70 see wherein the superior vir-
tue Of tho European custom, now largely
introduced in America, consists. If a
man must drink it would seem that the
sooner he swallowed it down and goes
about his business the better.
/ Deheye If there could be compiled ac-
curate statistics, not of the men punished
for crimes of drunkenness, but through
some impossible intoXicometer that
would precisely gauge the amount of
lnebriatiOn, be its manifestation in in
extreme or mild it would be
found that there is a much higher aver
age 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 the
casual observerers, 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 a physician to loose
some practice in America, or make what
in the eyes of prudent parents.
Wine bibing and beer .bibing is a uni
versal habit i'm France, Germany, Swift
zerland and Belgium. Men, women, and
children, all drink, and some of them
drink merely all the time. do not
think that the great tun at Heidelberg
would Inst some families great while
In France wine is the beverage of the
rich and the poor, and L do not think
that it is an exaggeration to say that the
French drink more wine than water
Americans, no matter what may have
been their prejudices and pledges, as a
usual thing, take to wine and beer drink
ing as soon as they have been a month
in Europe. 1t Is said that the water of
somesE European cities, and especially of
Paris, is not good, and our countrymen
and country women give this as an ex-
clise for their fall from obstinance. But
I do not think there is any thing the
matter with the water except lack of
ice. The water in Paris is perfectly
clear sweet, and not very warm even
in the hottest weather. G. AS.