Wichita eagle., 1888-05-24
DRINKS OF ALL NATIONS.
THE EASILY GOVERNED NATIONS
DRINK NO STRONG LIQUORS.

residents in India spend more money for
drink than any other people in the world
Plenty OF people are, of course, ready to
condemn this sort of thing, and say the
Anglo-lndians ought to quench their thirst
with non-intoxicants. More lemonade and
less brandy and champagne, it is claimed.
would materially lessen the rate of NOR
tallty from enlarged spleen, the bane of
Anglo-Indian life. This may be strictly
| true, but the fact remains that q mere
handIul of hard drinking Britons are adj
mlnisterlng the affairs of 200, 0O0, 900 prac-
dcally non-drinking people.
Some OF the natives of India consume
more or less arrack and palm toddy, but
the Brahmins, the gentlest and easiest
governed people in the world, drink moth
| ing stronger than water. The only tribe
OF people In India who drink to excess are
the Eats Of the Punjeb The festive Jat
gets drunk on arrack, and INDUCES in
manly sports like civilized being. On
the held of battle he is equal to a round
dozen non-drinking Hindoos, and forms
today the flower Of the native British In
dian army. He it was that stood firmly
by the English during the mutiny. and
performed prodigies of valor scarcely
second to Tommy Atkins himself He
calls the water drinking natives of Dude
ana Bengal ''poorbeahs, - and is superior
10 them IN every manly attribute
In Mohammedan countries very little
alcohol is consumed in proportion to the
number OF people. The Koran denies the
seductive pleasures of it's material para
disc to Mussulmans who indulge in the
flowing bowl of Bacchus here below. The
no
Mohammedan religion. The whole Per
sian nation belong to the Shah faith. Its
lU,V00, QUO of people are governed with the
same ease as the same number of sheep
might be by few officials who care moth
ing for their welfare except to soueeze
them like an orange whenever they feel
like it. The 10000. 600 never touch any.
thing intoxicating from one years end to
another. The governing few consume raw.
fiery arrack by the pint daily in wanto;,
disregard OF the Koran and its TEACHINGS
The village khan and subordinate cover
NOR of province keeps by him a stock of
arrack and drinks from half pint to a
pint with his midday meal to stimulate
his appetite and make himself feel boozy
While eating, and is frequently put to bed
limp as dishrag by his retainers at night.
The Japs are the most encouraging ex-
amples that the east presents of nation
progressing from Asiatic to an European
plane OF civilization They bid fair ere
many years to be more European in their
habits than the majority Of Europeans
themselves. One wouldn't care to assert
that the vast quantity of sake consumed
by the Japanese has anything to Go with
their superiority in this particular over all
other Aslatics. l am merely pointing out
facts, leaving the reader to draw his or her
own conclusions therefrom
No nation in Asia drinks so persistently
and steadily as do the japanese The
average Jap consumes about half a pint
of sake or rice beer with each meal-a
pint and half per day-saying nothing
about further social indulgence in the
evening. Both men and women drink
sake by the pint daily, and think no harm
OF 1t, either AT meal times the sake is
served up in slender, big necked earthen-
ware bottles, holding about pint The
favorite way is to drink it warm. 1t is
usually warmed by setting the bottle in
boiling water for while before putting it
on the table. Rice beer is a rather de-
ceptiye name to give sake, as it resembles
liquor more than beer, both in color, con-
sistency and intoxicating property In
the consumption of alcohol the Japs, as a
nation, rank way ahead of any other
Asiatic country. In addition to sake.
they are also rapidly coming to the fore
Us consumers of beer and brandy and
whisky. Their consumption of these
beverages keeps curiously even pace
with their progression toward what we
are pleased to consider our own higher
plane Of civilization. When they first be-
gan to think of wearing European clothes
they contented themselves with import
ing French brandy and English and Mil
waukee beer. Now, however, the gov
eminent compels all its officials to adopt
European clothes, and the upper crust So
ciety at Toxic are far from being alone in
EuropeaniZing their habits and costumes.
Consequently the Japs have commenced
brewing their own beer and making a
very good imitation of French brandy
The Chinese as a nation consume very
little intoxicating drink, although they
make a beverage from rice called .'torri''
almost the counterpart of the sake Of
Japan. Whenever there has been war |
between the two nations the Japs have in
variably walloped John Chinaman almost |
as thoroughly as the arrack drinking Jats |
of the Pun jab were wont to make things |
warm for the total abstaining Hindoos in |
81, and before.
The Turks are a nation that drink next |
to nothing of a stimulating character, IN |
less tiny cups Of strong black coffee may |
be so considered. As Mohammedans they |
are less sanctimonious but more consistent |
than the Persians. The Osmanli official |
sometimes INDUCES in mastic, but if he |
does, he consumes it in the guise of medi- !
pir no of b.
not including alcohol used as medicine |
The Turks are brave and warlike, and if, |
when their star of empire was in the |
fioated over half Europe, they had for
saken the prohi5itive tenets Of the Koran
and went into brewing and drinking beeI
and whisky, who Knows but that they /
might be occupying Moscow today instead |
of being bulldozed by the Russians'
The Russians are a nation of hard 7
drinkers. Vodka is consumed by the Mus
covite peasantry in vast quantities The |
moujik's idea OF holiday is TO get skin
full of vodka, and then lay down and
hang on to the ground. This laudable
performance is gone through with by the
Russian peasant as often &c he can pro-
cure the necessary quantity of vodka He
has saints day TO keep almost three
hundred and sixty-fve times year, and
the only thing that prevents him from
celebrating every one Of them by filling
himself up with vodka is the necessity Of
making his living and the lack OF money
to thus indulge his appetite. With all
this one would naturally expect 10 find
the country going to the devil and deie-
rioration. This fate, however. we find
reserved for the total abstainln9 Turks,
while the Russians make more and more