The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1885-06-18
Open !, n=; and d Secret Drinking.

When rum loses its traditions of con.
viviality it loses all the poetry, all the
charm that is claimed for it by the vota-
ries of Bacchus. The registering drinker,
the "good fellow" who scatters half his
weeks pay on the beer.stained bar of a
Saturday night, and allows his family to
suffer for want of food, is yet possessed
of this charm of good fellowship. he
makes his run swigging an. excuse to as
semble coteries of "good fellows" of the
same calibre as himself. Without the
good fellowship, without comrades who
will chat and exchange banter with him
at the bar or ut the beer tables, his tipple
loses its taste. Solitary drunkenness
would be to such a drunkard an absolute
torture. It is rum as proyocation of
wit and a promoter of good fellowship,
that has charm for him. And the one
is inseparable from the other. The sight
of friend and the grasp of his hand:
suggests as the first thought, sI,et's have
a drink" On the other hand, thirst
makes the proposition, "Where can l
find a friend to drink with me?" These
men are the open and above. board drink
ers. It is they who are held up as fright
full examples by the temperance agitators
and the church, who are the sworn foes
Of bar.rooms and the saloon.keepers.
But theesis anotheE class of drinkers
more NUMEROUS. ,thans those whos hang.
over the bar and laugh away their lives.
It is the sly class who stink through the
side doors all alone aud have their rum
handed to them in the seclusion of dark
corners. The element of good fellowship
does. not spice ,thei, tipple. All is gross
Lore Of liguor for itsltaste and secrecy
withal. The consciousness that the tip.
pier is doing something that is wrong
prompts only schemes of concealment.
They have regulations to lose, and they
prefer to sacrifice their honor and the
Joys of illogical world puts premium on
such sneakipg pretences, and holds up
to honor the man who acts a lie if, he is
only smart enough to prevent him being
found out.
How cunning they;a are, these sly tip.
pliers, after their long practice in deceit !!
How they learn to give drug clerks q
Yinous wink at the soda fountainl Why,
it's perfect art. And when the marks
of their potations begin to make their
ur mistakable manifestations on their
countenances, how carefully they close
all the avenues of ASSAULT How slick
they are at evading questions. Now
where churchman has red eyes and a
nervous tremor that in any one else
would be interpreted to mean that he
had had a night with the boys, he escapes
with the explanation that this is the
season when hay fever comes on him.
And when you see him next with bul:
bous nose all pimpled o'er. with the lurid
marks of Bacchus, he will tell You that
he is suffering from nose cold, another of
the Strifing fashionable ailments of the
time. There is no use; you can't nail
eisly drinkers but they take lots of
tfouble and lose lots of time, and die
drunkards in the end, just as the "good
fellows" do. The only difference is that
most of them keep their masks on while
they die,, and indeed they often have
their masks buried with them, to deceive
the world. If there is any consolation
ALPS we'll and good, but we think on the
whole the "good fellow" who drinks
openly, without hypocrisy, and for the
conviviality and camaraaerie of the bar
as we'll as for,the; effects of the poison,
has the better of the game all through.
He is the preferable person, in our opin.
ion, in every way, taking him as a man,
all through. There can be no doubt of
that The "good fellow" is to be pitied
and guided Alright. The other one de-.
serves only exposure and scorn.-Ne,o
York Star.