The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1888-03-24
"COME, TAKE A DRINK"

The Custom of Creating" and What 1t
Leads to-Drink in Commercial and
Business Relations.
The following facts with reference
to the creating" habit are furnished
The Voice by well-known newspaper
man of Brooklyn, whose business and
social relations have given him n clear
insight into the relations of this per-
nicious social custom to the wide preva-
lence of inebriety.
One must know the facts about the
treating" habit in order to know
what an important element it is in the
matter of excessive drinking. Let us
go to the famous Hoffman House bar.
We will sit at a table and drink bot
tie of lemon soda as an excuse for be-
ing there. In one hour we have seen
fifty men drink at the bar; four of
them drank alone Thirty were ac-
companied by from one to three
friends. Each man treated. Sixteen
came in parties of two or three, and
each member of the party treated.
Down town, at Nash & Crooks, we
see few men come in singiy. In half
an hour, while sitting at the lunch
counter, we have seen fifteen parties,
ranging from two to five persons each,
stand up at the bar. In most cases
each man has treated and in nine cases
out of ten these parties have been
joined by other men. some one of
whom has been acquainted with some
one in the party, and introductions
and reciprocal drinks have taken place
all around.
You may say this doesn't prove
much, and that it only happened so.
But claim that the treating" habit
is responsible for most of the excess
i've drinking. This is not pet theory,
but is based on personal acquaintance
ship with a large number of men who
have suffered from the drink habit
men whom | have met while holding
official positions in both the State and
the National Government, and in a
wide acquaintance with men generally,
from very early age.
Let us take report of 600 cases of
inebriety in the King County On. Y
inebrate asylum. Of these 600 cases,
i 45S became inebriates from associa-
ton, i. e., from going with drinking
men and indulging in the habit of
treating. Among other cases given
are melancholia, injury, business, dis
ease, trouble. being in the army (mean-
ing, probably, the fatigues and expos
ure of military life) and hereditary.
AS to hereditary the specialist in dip
somania does not believe that because
mans father or grandfather was a
drunkard he must of necessity be one.
What he says is that man so stu
ated as to relationship will have a
standing tendency toward the excess
/ i've use of liquor, and that he should
not use it at all. The specialist says
that there are very few men who really
like the taste of alcoholic drink, but
there are many men, in our present
state of civilization, the condition of
4 whose nervous system is such that they
can not escape becoming inebriates If
they drink at all.
Many an inebriate, morally speak
ing, would like to stop the habit, but
he drinks from what he believes to be
physical necessity. Hence it is that
man who has once been committed
to the inebriate asylum can never
drink with safety on his release.
A distinguished artist was lately
found dead in a liquor saloon. Three
years ago he told me of the great ex-
cesses in which he was indulging. and
asked me how he could stop. l told
him the first thing to be done was, as
Falstaff says, forswear "villainous
good company" No man could ever
break the habit as long as his compan-
ions, during social hours, were men as
badly off rs himself A year ago two
of his quOndam companions died from
excessive drinking. Soon after this
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