The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-05-12
A Judge Says a Man Who Drinks
That Many Daily is Not
Temperate.
But Experts Conclude That the
Number Varies With Diff
ferent Men.
It Depends on Whether SchoOners or
Ponies Are Used, Likewise Oh the
Kind of Beer.

Judge Ewing expressed the opinion that
man who drank five or six glasses of beer
day was not temperate. Such conclusion
is contrary to the experiences of experts.
There are for instance. in all breweries
plenty of men who drink more than that
quantity year in and year out, day by day,
and are sufficiently sober to keep regularly
at their work. The amount Of alcoholic
stimulant in an ordinary glass OF beer is 80
small that when five glasses are distributed
throughout the working hours of the day
they do not produce any perceptible effect.
Any one in the habit of drinking beer can
take glass every three hours without inter-
ference with his powers of locomotion or
with his working capacity.
The question whether lager beer will in
toxicate has long been disputed. There are
plenty of men in New York who will testify
that they can drink to their full drinking
capacity without being affected by beer. 1t
was sworn to in a court in this city, few
years ago, by witness that he had drank
sixty glasses of beer in one day without be-
coming intoxicated.
1t is common thing for workmen who
are engaged in occupations that cause a
quantities of beer without apparent injury.
Men who work over furnaces or in foundries
seem to have great capacity for beer.
1t is often disputed question whether.
man is drunk or not. Policemen, who
ought to be experts, frequently, mistake
sickness for drunkenness, and when they
find men limp helpless jump at the conclu-
sion that they are drunk. A number Of
cases have occurred where sick men, I'M
justly accused of being drunk, have been
put in cells and died there when they mere
~ needed medical attendance. Many med
;CSr 1rpa OF nj M
liceman may readily mistake for drunken
ness Injuries of the brain produce daZed
condition. and incoherence of speech that
is easily mistaken for intemperance.
Any habitual beer drinker will laugh at
the idea of being considered incorporate
merely because he took five or six glasses of
beer day. It is not an unusual thing for
beer drinkers to take five or six glasses at a
sitting without being incapacitated from
walking or talking.
The amount of beer, and, IN fact, OF any
thing else, that man can become habitu-
ated to is surprising. It is we'll known that
by constant use the most active poisons
may be taken in large quantities, such as
would kill an inexperienced person. Power
full drugs like morphine, opium, laudanum,
strychnine, are taken at first in small
doses, which soon lose their effect, and are
gradually increased until the dose taken at
one time would kill an ordinary man. In
the same way men get accustomed to drink
ing beer. or course, men differ. What is
one mans meat is another's poison. What
would be temperate for one would be
most incorporate for another. Five glasses
for one would be temperate, while two for
another might be incorporate. There is no
precise number of glasses that will produce
intoxication for everybody within the ordi-
nary limits of drink; that is to say, when
the Intoxicating point is reached with beer
the quantity is SO great that an equal
amount of water would be about as oppres-
sive to the stomach.
The ordinary German can go to a concert
hall and drink beer all the evening, and his
wife and children will drink also, and they
will go home sober. and not alarm the
neighborhood with brawls. Although the
Germans as class all drink beer they are
also equally distinguished for being steady,
industrious, sober sitizens. They do not
They have been drinking beer from child
hood, and to them it is as harmless as
bread.
There is one point on which the dictum
of the Pittsburg Justice is not very clear,
and that is rs to the size of the glass which
a very important consideration whether the
court meant schooner or pony" To
speak of a glass of beer is indefinite. A
schooner glass is about five times the size
Of pony glass. A man might have
five-pony-elass capacity, while he would be
capacity.
The origin of the schooner glass of beer
is doubtless due to the fact that an ordina-
~ glass is considered too small to be exhil-
arating. The pony glass was originated
for those who drink for form or friend
ships sake and desire to drink often.
There is a vast difference between the guam
tity of Coney Island pony and an east
side schooner we'll settled.
There is also another point on which the
Pittsburg Justice is not clear and that is as
to what kind of beer the court refers to.
There are various kinds of beer with vari-
GUS kinds of Intoxicating property. A man
might drink five or six glasses of one kind
of beer and be more incorporate with it
than double the quantity of another kind
of beer.
The practice Of the New York courts in
the investigation of cases of alleged intern
perance is not to place SO much stress upon
the quantity consumed as upon
the effect upon the consumer. The
question really is not ''How much did he
drink" but Did what he drink make him
intemperate?" 1t is obvious from various
standpoints that the five-beer theory of the
Pittsburg justice will not stand examina-
ton or the test of experience.
A Country Where There Are Nine Women
to One Man.
All travellers who 60 to Paraguay speak of
the remarkable preponderancs Of women
over men. The estimates differ greatly,
some writer's making the ratio nine women