Delaware state journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1870-1883, 1881-02-24
TEETOTALERS ABROAD
Drinking Wine for Their Stom-
ach's Sake Under Protest.
AN EXPERIENCE WITH WINE
BostOn's Drinking Water and the
Horrid Things That Find Their
Abode Therein--Mo More
Adams Ale.
THE MUSICAL WORLD

opcclal correspondence OF Sthte JournAl
--BosToN, Feb 15.-When good teeto-
talers go abroad they say with uplifted
hands and eyes and gobleis.
"Ob this shocking water We shall
certainly be i'll if we drink it, for we are
assured on the best of authority that it is
rank poison. We detest the ruby wine,
and at home our principles forbid that we
should ever touch, much less taste the in
sidious beverage; but here, why really, we
suppose we must but 1t is under protest,
we beg you to Observe"
| Whereupon down goes glass OF claret,
with decided smack of the lips, and at
the end of the dinner each individual
teetotaler has disposed of his regulation
pint bottle of the cleaning red wips,-
under protest. 1t is to be observed that 1t
is more generally at the tabls dAots
dinners, where the wine is furnished as Q
matter of course, that these friends Of
temperance find the water undrinkable,
than as the case when they have to order
and pay extra for it. Though even then
it is cheaper to buy than tea or coffee, the
regular price all over the European CONT
nent being franc eco oents), alike for a
pint bottle of 0tn ordinatre, common red
clare) and for pot of tea or coffee, which
only holds about cup aud half of the
| boFoinSoy hhd WAS hofeT kuOWu u De uOL
or strong. English breakfast tea is the
only kind known over there, too, and they
who hate English breakfast tea hate It
with hatred not to be conquered or
modified
In our little party of tourists last sum-
mer there was one eccentric Vermonter
who persisted throughout the route In
abstaining from the tempting bottle, and
regularly ordered and drank his tea, and
between spells didn drink OF all, guess,
for he seemed nightly afraid of the water
Then, there was dear old Pennsylvania
clergyman and his sweet little wife who
once or twice were known to venture upon
tasting the unknown liquids, but this suf-
feed; either they didn't like the taste or
couldn't quiet their conscience for the
regular emp of coffee for him and tea for
her-for they were like Jack Spratt and
wife in this-was ordered at every dinner.
For, you must know that European hotel
keepers make very good proportion of
their income out of the drinks that are
ordered, and neither tea nor coffee are
ever served by them except at breakfast.
Generally guests order better grade of
wine than the common country wine that
is served with the dinners. But, very
choice wines only cost 40 or 80 cents the
pint.
| For myself, l confess to have felt CON
siderably delighted at the prospect of
drinking all the wine 1 should choose,
| upon arrival in those countries where the
water was so bad and the winds 30 pure
and where everybody does it and it's quite
''the thing" 1 never had liked wine
much at home and had drank 1t somewhat
less; but there, it was to be altogether a
| different thing, and the wine WAS to be-
| oh just delicious Nectar of the gods,
and ali that sort of thing!
| But my dreams don't pan ont well, as
they say in the far West. The beer in
Germany wss good-thoroughly good.
But on arrival in Venice, and trial of the
wine-poh it was sour, and had to put
sugar in it; it was strong, and had to
water it down; ard then they laughed at
me. Then 1 ordered fine white vine
expense was no object at so cents the pint
but although the "bouquet" was pro-
and left, whose glasses filed, I-didn't
like the taste. But I stuck to it, didn't
drink q drop of the poisonous water in
Venice, and ditto in Florence; being deter
mined to keep my health. But In the last
named City OF Flowers-which flowers
were hidden from view by the binding
| white dust while we were there L got
sick, and during one night of wakeful
misery, made tuneful by sounds of soft
Southern voices and a Cracked guitar
beneath my open window, 1 came to the
conclusion that 1t was the wine that made
me SO. Thereafter / drank water
throughout that delightful month of July
that we spent in Italy, and wasn't sick
any more-was never 80 well In my life,
in fact-though 1 put ice In my water
whenever it was to be had, even in Naples
where the only ice is balls of very dirty
frozen snow from the mountains. After
putting a ohunk-or rather loose spoon
ful-of this cooler into your glass, wherein
it Immediately melted, there'd be a good
half inch Of sticks, straw, sand and other
unknown sediment in the bottom.
1t didn't taste very good, it is true, but
quite as good as the water we have to
drink in Boston this winter, which is the
subject with which started and which
have roamed half over the world before
reaching. The crystal nectar, the spark
ling water, the silyery liquid, the boasted
cocbituate, is q fraud and snare, ia
which sport more peridinrum cincture
| ditfulgia globoss, and other creatures with
horrible nsmes TO the square inch than in
any water that Europe can scsre up.
| When we set out to beat those effete old
countries We have never any half-way-ness
about it, and having undertaken to show
the world at large what horrible stuff the
water for which Boston inhabitants pay
taxes, can become, we carry it out
brsyely.
Uochituste is lake, few miles out.
| One or more streams feed il, which are In
turn fed by the drains of one or more
villages and towns. l don't know the
particulars and don't want to. Can't give
you the statistics and am glad can't. It's
bad enough in general. Well, Cochituste
has been frozen over, for Vennor only
knows how many weeks, which has made
the matter worse, they say who know.
Nobody thinks Of drinking the water here
now, or for two months past, and all such
mild alternatives as milk, cider, mineral
waters, 60, have been in the greatest de-
msnd. Nearly every family In town has
doubled its usual supply of milk and the
question is. how do the COWS manage to
double up correspondingly.
The moral which would draw Is, why
can't folks be consistent? Either give up
talking about the necessity of drinking
wine abroad because the water is so oad, or
else admit the necessity of drinking wine
at home because the water is so bad It is
really as bad as to make any one i'll who
drinks it. And as for the wine being bad
too, is all nonsense. In regard to It's
quality, l mean. They doctor the red
wines with cheap sdulterations In Italy as
much as they do that sent here. 1 never
tasted such bad wine here as l tasted in
Italy, and l drank no better wine there
than that which certain friend of mine
has on the table here in Boston every
day. For my own part, l much prefer
milk to either, milk which is cold without
being iced, is delicious.
As for mineral waters, there's horri-
BILE great white sign with big black letters,
stuck over baker'sshop just opposite our
front windows, which has everlastingly
prejudiced me. "The S. Medical
Arteslan Well Water, with list of all
the diseases that flesh is heir to announced
by 1t. A bakers shop is quasi necessity
to the world,-though this one has sour
bread and can't make decent oake-but
such an eye-sore as that sign-board, Is a
veritable nuisance, and makes one wish he
were Harvard student that he might
safely pull it down nightly, or else that it
were possible to gain an easement of pros
pect from ones 'sfront-parlor windows, which
would give a suit for damages against
yonder baker. Astonishing amounts of
water is pumped up and sold too,-hoes-
heads filed and carried off, and other
wholesale prOceedipps heside refa;l oraa