Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-10-17
THE DRINKING HABIT.
Is Society To-day Amy More Temperate
Than in Former Days.


In any comparison between the present
generation and our grandlathers or great
grandfathers il is usually assumed that we
are superior to them in temperate use OF
intoxicating liquors. Gentlemen no longer
come Keeling into the drawing-room after a
debauch at the dinner table. Five-bOttle
men have gone the way of the world, and
the days Of prolonged rotations are at an
end. At dinner party heavy drinking is
regarded as q disgracetgi anachronism, and
a man who gets drunk excludes himself
from good society. All this is very true,
but it does not prove the assertion that we
are more sober people than our grand
fathers; 1t only proves that we do not get
drunk IL the same way as theT did.
It is quite possible to drink great deal
OF liquor-even of strong quor-without
yielding to that absolute intoxication
which reveals itself in inaTticuiate speech,
staggering movements, or senseless stupor.
A good deal depends on whether the liquor
is consumed at sitting or in drains taken
at intervals during the day. Violent or
helpless intoXicatiOu IS bat one among the
phases of drunkenness. 1t may be said
that few men now allow themselves to be
seen in this condition. Some of these are
confirmed sots and are always tipping
but, as "A rule, when men of this class get
drunk il is not oy the means of habitual
drains, but as the natural conclusion of a
drinking bout in which they have engaged
with distinct expectation, if not expressly
for the sake of this result. There is a big
drunk recurring with more or less fire.
quency, and in the intervals they are per
haps as sober as judges. This was once-the
way in which gentlemen settled down to
their cups. but the fashion has been grada-
ally descending in the social scale
But this is only one kind of drunken
nees, and not in all respects the most
dangerous and destructive kind. It's very
grossness. and the violent external indica-
tons which accompany it, supply to some
extent warning, if not a corrective. tits a
rock on which no vessel can split unaWares.
There is 4 sharp unmistakable penalty for
each Carouse, which suggests reelection and
encourages reform. If man goes to the
dogs in this manner he goes with his eyes
open, and everybody can see plainly
what has happened, and can put to-
gether cause and effect, and draw the
necessary moral. tits the strong, still cur
rent OF the stream above the falls, the
fatal grip of which Is not appreciated
until it is too late to struggle against
it, which is m st to be dreaded.
1t is possible for man to be very much
the worse for drink, as the phrase is, both
in a moral and a physical sense, without
o4ONAiI ~ Ia no BUT VI St1StGiif Cf Gil
to be all but confirmed drunkard without
himself being more than family aware of
the peril in which he stands. Hence the
serious and alarming aspect Of the kind of
drunkenness that is now becoming so
prevalent in ciety, even in quarters where
1t mas been hitherto little suspected, drunk
enness which, stopping short OF absolute
inssXication, takes the form Of a perpetual
and feyerish craving for alcoholic excite
ments for nips and drains, for odd glasses
of whisky straight and tipples of brandy
at irregular hours. AS a mere matter
of hygiene, it would probably be bet
ter for man to get fairly
drunk once or twice every few weeks
than to yield himself in bondage to an evil
desire, which when once INDUCED, estab-
fishes it's dominion by praying on the
stomach and destroying the appetite of its
wretched victim, and thus compelling him
to depend on stimulants for sustenance. 1t
is possible for u time TO make alcohol a
substitute for food, but, of course it can
Anly be for time, and the end is certain,
&ad often swift in coming, There is, of
course, a constant tendency to increase the
dose, and the tipler's condition is always
becoming more pitia5la and helpless; but
his descent IS smooth and not interrupted
by the shocks which pull up the more VIC
lent drunkard in his desperate career. and
almost compel him, in spite of himself, to
reflect on the misery and degradation which
he is accommodating for himself Louis
willie Courier Journal