The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1883-01-19
AN EXPERT ON DRUNKENNESS
A Slave of Liquor who doesn't Believe ia
DIpsomania.
Philadelphia Press.

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The Republic prints two page letter from
that brilliant but ,incorrigible Bohemian,
George II. Butler, on the evils of drunken
ness. No man in the United States is so
nephew of Governor Ben Butler. take
this occasion TO say that George Butler, ex-
dramatic writer Of Wilkes Spirit, ex-edi-
torial writer for the New York Herald, ex-
commercial agent of Panama, ex-Consul
General to Egypt, sx-staff officer to Don
Carlos, etc, Is head and shoulders above any
newspaper correspondent know of, and
don't except Bull Run Russell, George A.
Townsend. The trouble with George But
lsr is that he is too fond of the "rosy." He
knows more of what is going on in the world,
the meaning of the foreign policies of every
government, the geographical importance of
every country, the literature OF every coun-
try, the statesmanship Of his own country,
with comprehension of every import ant
event that happens, than any other man /
stay sober until he Is dressed like a gentle
man and is received everywhere with favor,
and then, pop! away he goes, and never stops
until his clothes are torn to pieces and dirty
TO the smell and sight. His mental condition
is wrstched, his stomach Is gone and his suf-
ferings are terrible. He Is taken TO the sta
ton house, and thence sent to some institu-
ton like the workhouse at Providence and the
St. Elizabeth Insane Asylum. He once
printed card saying he had been in every
reformatory institution including the Jail, In
the District of Columbia, except the lying-in
asylum, and he would not be surprised If he
was sent there some time. cannot make
long quotations from the article in question,
but this paragraph has a peculiar interest:
GAS q drinking man myself, unfortunately
better known for that one failing than for
my many virtues, let me say word about
drinking men, their modes of thought, their
habits, the causes Of the disease, habit or
vice, as the reader may choose TO call 1t. |
am not believer In the theory of dipsoma-
mia. know that 1t has few eminent advo-
Gates among medical men. | have sought
information from the doctors of several
inebriate asylums and hospitals, aud have
had the privilege of consulting the distin-
guished superintendent OF one insane asylum
upon whom inebriates are forced by the GER
tifcates of convenient physicians, (signed,
patient unseen, as carelessly as a Iecom-
mendation for olIice.) and have read agood
deal on the, to me, interesting subject. If /
was the victim of an uncomfortable appe-
title, wanted to know 1t. II was curious
mental problem to me. Perhaps, thought,
N and a lot of other apparently good fell
LEWIS | have been clustered with are dipso
manIacs. some Of us may next develop hon.
icidal tendencies, or a desire TO burn barns.
Well, the result of my observation and read
ing IL, that there is no such thing as dipse-
mania. 1t il nothing but plain, old-fashon-
ed drunk. The drunkard, ninety nine times
In hundred, is as much responsible for
what he does when he Is drunk, as the man
who kills another through anger. The So
called dipsomaniac gets drunk because he
wants to-he likes the effect of whisky. He
may have any one Of dozen reasons for it
poverty, disappointment, toolhache, family
difficulties, idleness - but none Of them
should excuse him If under the influence of
liquor he commits a crime. Like the victim
of opium, the habit is often carried to an ex-
tent that a sudden cessation of stimulants Is
almost certain death. No, dipsomania Is a
sentimental humbug and a social fiction, or
the scientific parlor fireworks OF medical men
of the advanced school-men like DR.. Beard
and the epigrammatic, ii not deep, Doctor
Spitzka."
Colonel Butler was admitted TO the Gov
eminent Insane Asylum not long ago as a
lunatic, on the certificate Of two doctors,
without being examined, and he says the
asylum has many drunkarls in 1t who are
sane, but who are sent there by friends to
save trouble and expense. He also shows,
by quoting the law, that drunkards have no
right to be there.