Connecticut western news., 1883-01-17
REQUESTING THE GROG TUB.
The Damage Rum Has Done in the Brit
 ish Navy.

The Damage Rum Has Done in the Brit
 ish Navy.
 During the whole of last century, and a considerable part of the present, says the New York Hour, drink was the curse of the British Navy, and in the contracts for supplying it there were few Admiralty officials who were not more or less interested. The consumption of rum on board 8 line-of-b battle ship, if Southey's figures may be accepted, would have astounded Falstaff himself. It was, then, a matter of no small importance when Admiral Vernon, an officer as pop ular as he was manly and brave, ordered water to be served out with their rum to his sailors. Before and after Vernon there had been Admirals who deemed that hard drinking and hard fighting went together, and who winked at the prodigious consumption of liquor on board the vessels under their charge so long as their tars were sober enough to man the guns with will when the pinch came. Among our temperate Admirals, Vernon, Nelson and Collingwood were always nobly conspicuous, and much would it have gladdened their hearts to hear that Ca very large quantity of rum,' sent out to Egypt for consump tion by the British fleet has come back to Portsmouth because it could not be used in the Mediterranean. Time was
 
 England to a foreign station would never have come back, but would have found some customers ready either to drink or to purchase it "for a consideration, :" whether consigned to the Tropics or to Nova Scotia, to torrid Brisbane or to Zembla's frost.
 There are many evidences that strong reaction against the use of alco- than to sailor that the incipient change in British national habits is mainly due It is notorious that, ever since the com mencement of his career, General Lord Wolseley has been determined oppon- ent to the issue of spirit rations to ar mics engaged in active service. "The Soldiers Pocket-Book'' abounds with evidences that it's author holds alcohol in abhorrence. "Give your men," he exclaims, ''as little spirits as possible; tea and coffee are much more sustaining and more portable. The old superstition that 'grog is a good thing for men be- fore, during, or after 8 march has been proved by the scientific men of all na- tions to be fallacy, and is only main tained by those who mistake the crav- ings of habit for the promptings of Ma ture herself It is the commonest thing to see men taking brandy to keep them warm. It is an ascertained fact that al- cohol of any sort reduces instead of in- creasing the temperature of the body. !" Lord Wolseley proceeds to explain that the medical officers who have accompan- jed Polar expeditions are unanimous in condemning spirits as preventatives against cold. No men, he observes, stand in need of greater endurance and undergo larger physical toll than the
  and yet tea is their constant beverage. As rule, no spirits have ever been is- sued to soldiers in South Africa, the re- suit being that the men were singularly free from sickness. During the Indian Mutiny British soldiers were very often cut off from fermented liquor for months together, and they were healthier than subsequently, when it was issued to to them as ration.
 Lord Wolseley shows that it rests with the officers, and with them alone, to reconcile their men to the discontinuance of the custom of using rum. cit is humbug for an officer to lecture his men about drinking, and then to go to his tent and be merry over bottle of sherry Wine with the officer holds the place of rum with the private, and, although the bottle of wine may do the former no harm, he ought cheerfully to go without his luxury when he compels those under his orders to forego theirs. Feeling that his conduct is for the good of the service should amply compensate him for the privation.
 It is satisfactory to observe that the crusade against alcohol is extending beyond the limits of the Army and Navy, and that employers of labor are begin ming to recognize the advantages of total abstinence for men exposed to hardships and trials of an abnormal kind. MT. John Burns, the chairman of the Cunard Steamship Company, has announced that Ion and after the 1st of December no r grog or other alcoholic drink will be served out to the company's crews, but that coffee will be substituted"
 MANY of the cigars labeled "Key