Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-06-01
DRINKING HABITS.
Changes in Them Since the Days of Our
Grandfathers.
From the New York Post. !

No feature of the centennial celebration
attracted more general attention than the
small amount of drunkenness in the great
crowds. The streets were packed with
| people all day long, day after day, and vet
cases of intoxication were so infrequent
that they attracted attention by their very
rarity. 1T can fairly be said remarks
the Examiner, Journal representing the
| Baptist denomination, chat the city dur
ing the three days was remarkably free
from drunkenness. The saloons were all
open, and it is said that they did a large
business. However that may be, the fact
is certain that there were very few signs
constantly by people who were about
the streets for hours on every one of the
three days, that they did not see a single
person under the influence of liquor. This
also is excellent evidence that the people
at large are gifted with good sense, and
know how to manage themselves even in
strange cities and on gala days, and it may
even be fairly said to show that they have
in this respect made great advances over
the people of 100 years ago"
There is no doubt that the Examiner is
entirely right in the opinion that in re-
spect of self-control the American people
of 1880 are superior to those of 1899, and
there is consequently less of drunkenness,
and of the disorder which springs from
drunkenness, on gala occasion now than
in the days of our gleat-grandfathers
Those were the days when people drank
strong liquors, and were expected to get
drunk on them when ministers and dea-
cons went from the examination of theo-
logical students orthodoxy, and his conse-
quent fitness to become a pastor to a din
ner where the board was graced with
brandy and rum" good old New England
rum y; when the glass of toddy was religi-
ously presented to the young pastor at the
house of every parishioner on whom he
called when ministers occasionally be-
came intoxicated without mourning dis
missal and when public men of the high
est standing might slip under the table at
a banquet without FORGETTING the confidence
of their constituents. In those days tens
and hundreds of thousands of people could
not have assembled and shown only Il rare
case of drunkenness.
The change is in part due to the growth
of the habit of total abstinence among the
people. 1t no longer provokes criticism,
or even causes remark, if a gentleman does
not drink wine at a public dinner society
recognizes that it is a personal question,
about which others have no right to con-
Germ themselves But this is only single
element in the change, and we doubt if it
is the most important. There were plenty
of people in last weeks crowds who are in
the habit of drinking liquor of some kind,
and who did drink during the days of the
celebration. The point is that they did
not get drunk, and the chief reason for
J this undoubtedly was that they generally
| did not drink the more intoxicating kinds
of liquor. The introduction of lager beer
IN the United States switched off" a
large portion cf drinkers from "hard :"
liquors to malt The man who years ago
would take two or three glasses of whisky
and get lighting drunk on them, now
takes two or three mugs of beer, and does
not get drunk at all.
These changes in drinking habits are not
confined to the United States. They are
hardly less noticeable in Great Britain In
recently presenting the budget to the
| House of Commons, the Chancellor of the
Exchequer called attention to the fact that
during the last quarter of a century there
has been great, material, and striking
fall in the consumption of spirituous liquors,
as shown by the receipts from the excise
tax. 81 have good news again for the
friends of the temperance cause" he said,
"though it has made and continues to make
a gap in the receipts of the Exchequer.
This great revenue does not grow in pro-
portion TO population. 1t might be
thought, now that We are at a critical
moment in the revival of trade, that this
would again lead TO an increase in the
revenue from drink But it has not done
! So He proceeded to show in detail tina,
spirituous drinks have fallen more and more
behind for the last dozen years; that cor
responding change has gone on in wines