Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-03-15
HORRORS OF ABSINTHE.
Take Good Advice and Keep Away
From the Seductive Green Fluid.

oODLES, VIM hEIENIL1 came
eE1f into such an unexpected pile Of
81 money that he has been seeking fam
Il III tastic forms Of dissipation ever since.
was drinking his sixth absinthe cock
tail in succession at the Platypus club Thursday
night when Smiffkins. who has lived in Paris
for so many years. you know, chided him gently
my dear fellow" said he, IF you 60 on
drinking that stuff in such a reckless way you'll
be in your grave within two years at the out
side"
You're pretty sort OF man to lecture on
temperance, replied Boobies ''why, III ven
ture to say that you consume more whisky than
any other member of the club"
ONE YEARS EFFECTS.
MAYBE so; but whisky. bad as it is-rm not
defending it's a very different beverage from
absinthe. You know yourself that absinthe at
tacks directly the brain ana nervous system
generally. Just keep ahead consuming the
amount Of ii that you have taken this evening
every day for one year and you will be inter
ested to observe at the end of that time what
dilaplcated specter of your present self you
are reduced to. Your nerves will be so shat
tered that you will shake with the palsy,
you will be reduced to a comparative skeleton,
your face will be drawn into lines and burrows
like that Of a sick old man and your complexion
Will have assumed a greenish hue resembling
that OF a6sinthe diluted with water 1t is likely.
too, that your mind will be somewhat impaired,
though possibly that will not signify"
WONDERS OF woRMwooD.
"Don't be too witty, Smiffkins. At all events
/ can say that have never drank enough alb
sinthe yet to intoxicate me. You don't observe,
do you, that my utterance is not distinct at this
moment or that my ideas seem confused"
Not III the slightest. And the fact illus
trates the most remarkable popularity of
absinthe. 1t doesn't intoxicate in the ordinary
way at all. man may be in an advanced
state of eXhilaration from its effects and yet he
Will not show the slightest symptom of drunk
enness. That is one thing that has made this
distillation from NORWOOD so dangerously
popular. You can drink glass after glass of it,
maintaining yourself at high pitch of mental
and nervous excitement and exaltation for
hours, and yet not feel nor exhibit the slightest
confusion of intellect or the least locomotive
difficulty. Under such influence you will be
able TO go to dinner party and shine CONVEX
satIonaiiy with a briliiancy unusual to you. or
you may take part IN public debate with a
success you could not achieve without the ald
of this extraordinary brain stimulant. The ex-
hl!aration 1t produces, too, is far more agree
able than that obtained from any other in
toxicant. Men never learn to like whisky; it
is always abhorrent to the palate, you may
see by watching drinkers at bar gulp it down
so as not to taste 1T any more than they can
help. But absinthe has a flavor that is eN-
quisite to its habitual consumers. Moreover,
Its pleasant stimulation does not lapse into
subsequent dizziness and drowsiness, and 1t
never occasions nausea"
COLLAPSE.
"All Of which," said Boobies. '1eads up,
suppose, to something dreadful at the end"
We'll, / was going to say that if you drink
another of those absinthe cocktails, all right as
you feel now. you WILL as like as not fall over all
at once on the floor. like a dead man. and re-
main unconscious for many hours, at the end
of which you will experience all the pains that
are apt to follow a prolonged spree. That is
the way abslnthe acts; so take my advice and
don't drink any more of il tonight. have
learned a great deal about its effects in a gen.
eral way during the years 1 have spent in
France, where the absinthe vice has grown TO
such a point within the last generation as to
seriously demoraliZe the race. To it is attrib-
uted by the authorities in large part the de-
crease III the French population. Over there it
is drunk usually in tins way: As much absinthe
as would fill two pony brandy glasses is put
into ordinary tall thin tumbler and some
sugar syrup is put with it, water being then
poured in from a height very slowly. Instead
of sugar syrup lump sugar is often used. placed
on top OF little sieve covering the mouth of
the tumbler; the sugar is moistened with water
and
DRIPs THROUGH THE SIEVE INTO TIE ABsINTHE.
The process takes about fifteen minutes. dur
luS WHICH. Wulle ne Wall5. the customer sltS at
table and reads the Petit Journal or the Jour-
nal Pour Rre. maybe. 1t was absinthe. by the
way. that drove poor old Charles Delmonico
crazy, so that he wandered over the hills in
Orange county, Nj, and died in the woods.
The drink produces an exceptionally acute va
riety of maniapotu. A man knew once had
it mildly and described to me the preliminary
symptoms.
HE was lying in bed at night reading by the
gas light. when he saw the door swing open and
alarSe baboon entered. The beast looked at him
once sorrowfully and then withdrew, but the
door opened again almost Immediately and in
came a second ba5oon. The first one followed
and the two proceeded to stretch slack rope
across the room above the bed, and then on this
slack rope began to walk over, coming in through
one wall and going out through the other, all
the animals that ever came out of the ark, be-
ginning with the little ones, such as squirrels
and rabbits, and getting bigger and bigger. up
to the bears, tigers and rhinoceroses. When
the elephant came along my friend broke loose
and his yells soon brought assistance and SUBJ
sequently doctor. He never tasted absinthe
after that. Pray accept my counsel, Boobies,
and don't YOU"