Morning journal and courier., 1889-05-30
DRINKING IN ENGLAND.
The Lisuids That Arc Popular

From the Saturday Review.
 It must be remembered that the friends of
 temperance, if they have reduced the total amount drunk, have portioned 1t out among a much smaller proportionste number of people. In :he amiable, if not exhilarating,
 picture which MT. Thaokeray drew of the after-dinnsr moments of an average middle class Briton some forty years ago, Mrs. Bril- ton "had had two glasses" (old ones, ten CT twelve to the bottle). Mrs. Briton's mamma four, and MT. Briton himself the remainder. In a row of thirty such houses it may well be that, while thirty bottles were SO drunk then, only twenty are drunk now. But, if
 none at all, or next to none, is drunk in half of them, the actual consumption per drink ing head is increased, not decreased. Again, do the people who drink so little after dinner drink as little at other timesi We trow not. Their fathers, who would have regularly consumed three or four glasses of port, and at feast day perhaps have managed each his bottle or more of olaret, had probably not touched anything alcoholic before dinner at all, unless it was glass of light beer or light sherry at luncheon. The model man, a joy to temperance persons, who scarcely touches a single round of claret before hur- ryipg to his cigarette, has not only drunk champagne at dinner, but has not impossi- bly, opened the day with brandy and soda, has consumed various irregular nips of spir- its and liquors, has imbibed not little cham pagne at luncheon, and perhaps at odd times as well, while he will very likely return to whiskey and potash, or brandy and soda once, or good deal more than once, before he goes to bed.
 The drinks of the time are beyond all doubt champagne Ger at least sparkling wine of some sort) and spirits mingled with (for the most part effervescins) water, liqu ors and nondeseript drinks of various kinds be- ing thrown in quite freely. In the poorer ranks at any rate, and in that not inconsid- erable portion of the richer which has no taste, the spirits are often exceedingly bad. from the worst kind, which is merely the 'plain German" aforesaid, diluted and fa- vored, to that which consists of not exactly brandy. To this kind of stuff mixed with soda water may perhaps be awarded the palm over all other liquids for achieving two apparent contradictions. It seems to quench the thirst and it makes you horribly thirsty: it does not seem to get you any forrader, and it by degrees makes man simply drunk. Then for champagne. Champagne properly and sparingly used (that is to say not spar ingly at time, but at sparing times) Is, as everybody knows, Q most admirable exhiIa. rator, stimulant and tonic. Taken constant ly, it ruins the nerves by constantly jogging them, and inviting the use of stronger li- quors to quiet them, not to mention Gan evil which, from our own point of view, we think considerable) that the reckless drinking of it when it is new and not fit to drink by tasteless persons leaves persons of taste none of it to drink when it is old and fit to drink, unless they are millionaires. Both brandy and soda and champagne can be, and are, drunk at any time, and when you begin to go on. They can be drunk standing, sitting, loafng, pretending to work