Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-06-16
The Liquor Question is Now an Issue
in England as Well as
America.
NOT MANY TOTAL ABSTAINERS
In Tictorias Domain, but the Bad Effects
Are Not as Noticeable as on
This Side.
MIXED DRINKS ARE NOT so POPULAR
The Difference in the Climate May Have Something
TO Do With II.
rcoRREsroHDEkcn OF THE DISPATCH,

LONDON, June 6-The drink question is
having a special airing in London just now.
Mr.. Goschen, the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer, has in his budget bill introduced a
clause to create fund out of which the
County Councils will be able to buy up the
license of any public house they may think
unnecessary, and so reduce the number of
saloons. This is called the compensation
of publicans" cause, and has set all the tee
totalers and temperance societies in Eng
land by the ears.
The drink question here, as in the .States,
is the most difficult of all questions for any
Government to handle. 1t seems lmpossi-
bic to please the temperance people, short
Of abolishing public houses altogether, and
as neither the people or the treasury would
ever stand this, we may safely presume that
our children and our children's children to
the twentieth generation, if the world lasts
as long, will be fighting over the question of
booze or no booze, high license or no license
at all.
HEAVY DRINKERS.
The English, as a race, are heavy drink
ers, far more so than the Americans taking
the people as whole. but In this country
YOU never somehow see the evil effects of
drink to so great a degree as you do in
America. have known more men go to
ruin from whisky in America in one year
than 1 have known in 20 years on this side.
This fact is, think, owing to many causes,
the principal one being in my opinion the
quality of the liquor drunk. Good whisky,
even if taken in excess, very seldom does
man any very great amount of harm, but
bad whisky whether drank in moderation
or in "lashiDs O. it" very soon brings on q fit
of the 'jim jams" and causes the drinker to
people the earth in his minds eve with
more snakes than Mr.. Stanley ever saw in
Africa.
must say that, except in certain places,
the greater part of the whisky drunk BY the
people in America is bad whisky. 1t is too
new, and In addition to this a goodly pro-
portion of the stuff sold over the counter has
by iudicious manipulation of the saloon
keeper been mixed" The barkeeper who
can make a gallon 60 mile is always in
demand, and saloon keepers care little for
the coats of their customers stomachs so
long as they can keep good coats on their
own backs Another undoubted evil in
American drinking is the love of the aver
age drinker for the insidious cocktail"
whisky sour, mint julep" and "mixed"
drinks generally.
THE AVERAGE IMBIBER.
! am quite aware that your regular old
BOaker who is so impregnated with whisky
that all the worms in the neighborhood of
his grave will go Oh protracted spree when
he dies, eschews mixed drinks altogether
and sticks to straight" but am not talk
ing now SO much of the regular topper as the
average drinker, and to him the cocktail is
rs mothers milk. The whisky in the cock
tail may be of the best, but all its good quail
titles are neutralized by the cOncoctiOns used
in the mixing.
Another thing that is against the Ameri-
can drinker is the climate. The GLORIOUS
climate of Californy," or other States, may
be indeed magnificent, and the soil may
grow more wheat to the acre than any soil
on earth, or pumpkins larger than house,
but it is very far from being an ideal climate
from a drinkers point of view. You feel
the effect OF liquor on you far sooner in the
States than here, and you feel it more in
England than you do in Scotland.
In some parts of the Highlands of Scot
land, notably the Western Isles, a man may
drink the "barlev bree' all day on the hills,
and wind up the evening with countless
tumblers of whisky toddy, and yet wake in
the morning with mouth like an infants,
do the same in America with any whisky
unless it be some special brand from the
"Blue Grass" 1 trow not.
A WORLDWIDE EVIL.
The evils of drink may be said to be world
wide among a certain class of the popula-
tion. In the East End of London men and
women make beasts of themselves on "blue
ruin" and vile gin, in France on absinthe
and bad cognac, in Russia on ''saki," in
India on ''arrack" and in Africa on palm
toddy. All the world over human beings
"booze, !" and will continue to "booze" until
the lamb takes it into its head to go to sleep
beside the lion. In England the power of
the public house is just as great in politics
as that OF the saloon is with you, and the
more they lower the franchise the greater it
will become. When the time comes here
for manhood suffrage the power of the pub
lie house will be trebled. A drink will 90
a long way with the average manhood
suffrage voter.
AT present there is a certain amount of
respectability attached to a man who has a
vote. He pays rent and taxes and contrib |
utes so far as he is able to the common fund. |
But when the day comes-as come it will, |
all kicking notwithstanding-when Jack |
will be as good as his master, and every |
never did an honest days work in their |
lives, or contributed a cent to the public !
purse except in the way of picking oakum,
will have his vote, then indeed will the |
publican rule the roost.
SOME POINTS OF DIFFERENCE,
There is a good deal of difference between
he saloon and tine public house, The for
ner, in the large towns at any rate, is far
better fitted up than the latter. The glass.
he bar fittings, and last, but certainly not
east, the barkeeper, are on more gorgeous
cale. The saloon is essentially drinking
place where men go and take their drink
ind generally walk out again. The public
house, on the other hand, makes a pretense,
II any rate, of comfort. In most public
houses you have ''snuggery" behind the
)ar TO which the landlords or the barmaid's
AvorIte customers have the open sesame, and
where generally may be found one or two of
he regulars" slipping their rum 'ot'
ind settling the affairs of Europe to their
'Wn entire satisfaction. There is no state
problem that is too difficult for the average
public house regular" to tackle.
another appendage of the saloon is want
ng IN the public house, viz, the barkeeper.
The place of the man of the white Jackets
nd blazing diamond is taken by the bar
Maid. The English barmaid is sui generis.
Generally employed for her good looks and
blllty to "chaf, she can hold her own
NTH Duke or pickpocket, and although
be has not the deftness OF her male counter
art In making that beautiful circular
weep of the glasses when mixing a cock
all, she can with infinite grace and charm
Tork the handle of the beer pump so as TO
i've the proper 'ead to the pint of hitter or
be pot Of 'arf-and- arf served out to her