Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-12-24
STORY OF A STIMULANT.
ALCOHOL IN THE COMMERCE
OF THE WORLD.

Different Countries.
From the San Francisco Chronicle.
What would The world do without alco-
hol? That is a question not easily
answered, but something instructive may
be said about what it has done with it.
There Is not in the world a tribe so savage
that does not know 1t by its effects, The
Chinese and Japanese obtain it from rice.
Wild tribes make it from juices of trees,
plants, fruits, and milk. Sugar has
large percentage of 1t. But from what
ever source obtained 1t is chemically the
same-carbon, hydrogen and oxygen In
certain fixed proportions. 1t is rarely
seen pure. As spirits of wine it will show
10 per cent. or more of absolute purity,
and in brandy, whisky, wine, beer it Is in
proportion OF only from 10 or 10 to 90, to
70, to the entire quantity OF liquid which
contains 1t.
Liquids containing alcohol are used for
their effect on the nervous system. In
small quantities they stimulate; taken in
excess they paralyze. The Indian IN
frontier settlement who sells rife, his
only means of support, for glass OF
whisky, is not aware OF these reasons.
Physiology and hygiene were not in
cluded in his youthful curriculum OF
study. Tne savage in the heart OF the
Dark Continent is equally ignorant OF the
subtle influence i'll the juices OF fruits or
plants which he has expressed and sub
jected to rude process OF fermentation.
Each knows SIMPLY that, having drank of
the firewater, he is eXhIlarated ana
rested; that for the moment he is com
Portable and happy. 1t is not probable
that Noah was the first man who got into
beastly state OF intoXicatIon on the
juice of the grape, but his shameful case
is the first on record. The science OF
chemistry was still some thousands of
years in the future, and the patriarch of
the deuge knew no more than the babe
unborn of the active principle in the wine
which caused his overthrow and the in
delicate and irreverent conduct OF his
sons.
1t is not in the province of this article
TO dilate on the abuses OF alcohol or the
liquids 1t is used to sfOrtty, but rather OF
the uses that have beer made OF It. 1t is
applied in medicine and in the arts in
great variety Of ways and forms. Methe-
Giate d-that is, adulterated with 10 per
cent. of wood spirits which renders it i'm
possible to take internally-it is used as
a preservatiye agent. The small per cent.
that enters into the composition OF good
wines renders it harmless unless the
MlUES are cOHSutItu IN eau tx
cess. Wines, whistles, and all the liquids
into which it enters in larger proportion
must have their use largely tempered
with discretion.
One o the most curious branches of the
subject is the use that governments have
made OF 1t as source OF revenue. This
advantage taken OF an almost universal
popular appetite may seem unfair, but
governments have had two potent reasons
Ia There
DANGER that many persons would discon-
tinue lis use TO escape the tax, no matter
how auriferous II might be, and 1T WAS
tex levied at the same time on a luxury
and the vice which governments, since
they have thought of the matter at all,
hive always held TO be legitimate. AS
taxpayer alcohol has during the last 200
or 300 years paid many billions of dollars
to support governments, to build palaces,
to raise and maintain armies, and to
build and keep af10at navies. Without
being able to state the figures exactly,
we may say that it pays now not far from
81, zoo, 600 90 annually to the various
governments of the world who avail
themselves of it as means Of income,
France began in 1869 to tax alcohol for
benevolent purposes. The tax was in
creased in III. In 1889 simple alcohol
paid tax of$7 70 the twenty-five gallons,
that twIcr as strong $l1 and spirits of
wine $40 20 for the same quantity. The
tax on alcohol disappeared in the sea of
universal liberty In 1871. Napoleon
imposed a moderate tax, and since then
il has varied IS The twenty-five gallons to
S25, the highest rate being moderate from
an American standpoint. But every time
that the government gets seriously
Btraitened for money threats are made to
raise il, which are always greeted
throughout the country with universal
howl of disapprobatioD. Wines are thin
and bad in France, ana alcohol must be
had to fortiiy them, or TO fabricate others
that are absolutely fictitious.
Bismarck has kept Germany in a fer
ment for a year past by an effort to in
crease the income of the government by
raising the tax on alcohol. bis success
thus far has been far from corresponding
with the zeal he has manifested. But as
In France and in Russia, money must be
had TO maintain vast ornaments, and the
attempt Will be sure to be rewarded the
coming winter. Alcohol began to be i'm
ported from Venice into Germany in the
fourteenth century. Since then it's use
has been general among the coal miners
and the workmen liz all manufacturing
centers. 1t has been their stimulants,
their nerve irritant, their chief comfort,
as ii mas been among all the overworked
population of Europe. Frederick H., of
1TubslA. lIupOStu bue uTsL TAXES On diCO-
hol. La 1910 these tax were changed
from the product Itself TO the distIllIng
apparatus and the raw material, to favor
the manufacture of alcohol from potatoes
which is a special German industry. This
potato alcohol is imported into France in
large quantities. Ii goes TO CogGac,
whence 1t is re-eXpOrted in the form of
fine Cognac brandy TO the United States
and elsewhere. Baden, Wurtem berg, and
Bavaria still control the tax on alcohol.
IL is said that Bismarck not only desires
TO raise the tax on this i'm pOrtant product
but to absolutely monopoliZe the control
of the 1857 dlstilleries, which is the ag-
gregate numDe in the country.
French alcohol, imported into England
by way Of Holland, became a fashionable
drink OF the gentry about the end OF the
seventeenth century. The financial
branch OF the government saw at once
means OF increasing the national income.
Tue Puritans were frightened by the APP
partition Of this new emissary of satan,
and, being powerful in Parliament. they
caused the i'm portation 10 be prohibited
in 1877. This produced an unexpected
development in the manufacture of gin
and whisky. Parliament then removed
the prohibition and endeavored TO stem
the tide OF drunkenness by high license.
This remedy proving insufficient, tn dis
tillation OF grain was forbidden by law
In 1853, but, finding 1t useless TO struggle
against the evil by such means. liberty OF