Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-12-31
ABSENTEE DRINKING.
Origin of the Vice in France and its Widl
 Prevalence.

Origin of the Vice in France and its Wide
 Prevalence.
 There seems to be no doubt that ab- sinthe as a cordial was largely made by the old French confiseurs, who were ex- pertS in the science of diStillation; but it was only when .used as flavor to other beverages, and does not seem to have become a common potation until about the beginning of the reign of Louis Philippe. The balance of evil dence, so far as it is obtainable, would seem to show that the Algerian cam paign, in the days when the Princes of the Orleans family were fighting so bravely in North Africa, and when the favorite song of the French troops was ''La Casauette du Pere Bugeaud." had great deal to do with the popularization of absinthe among military men. The operations of war had to be carried out not only under burning sun, but in all seasons, at all hours, and very often on marshy ground. The men were exposed to continual fatigue, and nothing is
 more probable than that some skillful and kindly military surgeon. observing the ravages made by brandy on the health of the troops in such a climate tIdU oi tA1SeI1d pftSCIlDeu dS d ulant diluted absinthe. The soldiers may have made wry faces at first at {. beverage which, to the uninitiated, tastes very like doctors stuff, but with dis astrous celerity they soon grew to like it and to drink it in excess.
 From camp tonic dispensed to re- cruit exhausted strength, and which in | the beginning may have been as benef- | cent as the eucalyptus cordial served out l to the laborers in the Roman Campagna. absinthe became the favorite pick-me- i up in the Algerian cafes. It soon re- crossed the Mediterranean, left its traces at Marseilles and Toulon, and with ter | rible quickness became domiciled in | Paris. It seized, so to speak. upon the people just as gin did on the London | populace early in the eighteenth cen 1 tury. and has never since released it's dreadful grip. We had positively to pass an act of Parliament in George Ills time to diminish the number of gin 1 shops, and to restrict the consumption of the poison by placing largely in creased excise duties upon it. Our neighbors have not yet seen fit to pass any law tending to suppress, or even to l restrict. the sale of absinthe. The del 1 eterious stuff has absolutely been allow ed to adulterate the French language.
 Modern dictionaries have not scrupled
 to admit the verb ''absinther." to lab | sinthiate," and 's'absinther," which is
 to swill or gorge ones self with ab-
 sinthe; then an absinthe drunkard is l called an ''absintheur'; and there is even an aphorism current in the brasse- ries: ''If thou hesitatest, absinthiate
 myself" Poetry, finally, has been
 pressed into the darkly fascinating ser
 vice of this maleficent herb. Absinthe
 has been called, from its half-verdant,
 half opalescent hue, the Fairy with
 the Green Eyes" Infinitely baleful, | pernicious, fatal has that green-eyed
 fairy been to tens of thousands of
 Frenchmen, gentle and simple, lettered
 and unlettered; nor among the victims
 of the seductive poison should be for
 gotten one of the greatest poets of mod | ern France, Alfred de Musset.-London l Telegraph.