The Forrest City times., 1891-02-27
IRISH ETHER DRINKING.
ALARMING PREVALENCE or THE VICE IN LONDONDE
The Practice and Its EAects- How sa Irlshmsa Gets Glorlously Drunk for Tivspssss. and Having Sooa Recovered.
 Can Get Drunk Again

The low-lying. marshy, boggy dis trict in and around Portadown, with it's long rows of drying turf through which we must pass before we can reach the ether-Srinking district says the London Graphic. is not sight calculated to cause much hitarity; but, once through this swampy morass. we reach the purer atmosphere and moro elevated parts of the counties of Derry and Tyrone, and arc now fairly in tho midst of the ether drinkers This custom is not by any means a new one. It has existed for almost half a cen- tury. and to Dr. Benjamin Ward Rich. ardson and Mir. J. H. Draper belong the joint honor of having brought the matter first prominently before the public. Ether drinking is not confined to any particular class of persons. to any particular age or to any one sex. The farmer. the laborer. the artisan, the mechanic, the merchant; their wives, their sons, their daughters are all imbued with the same inherent morbid desire-to participate in this cheap and short-lived form of intoxi- cation. The old man of sixty-fve years and the strapping young fellow of eighteen or twenty summers are to be found alike victims of this vice; aye, and l have seen mothers and daughters sitting side by side while they drank this volatile fluid.
 It is interesting to observe the elab- orate manner in which this practice is carried out In the case of whisky drinking, as we know, the habit is carried out with the utmost simplicity. As a rule, 1t is diluted with little water and tossed off Not so with ether. however. There is some what tedious and elaborate process gone through, almost invariably in the following manner: In the first place the drinker prepares his palate for the fluid; or, to use the common phraseoogy of the district, he trenches his mouth," which is done by washing it out with about two tablespoonfuls of water. This done. about a dessert spoonful of ether Is poured into small glass or cup, after which the drinker seizes his nose. which he holds tightly with his left hand, while he raises the cup with his right and swallows off the balm for all sorrow. Having taken the ether he next drinks about two tablespoonfuls of water and the operation is complete. Some writers have doubted whether such practice is carried out, but from ob- servation of many cases 1 found it was the almost invariable rule, and habit and exceptions were few and far between. Each ono of these three distinct parts of the process are done for certain specific purpose. The mouth Is cleared in tho first instance. flavor of the liquid. The nostrils arc held closed in order to prevent the odor from reaching the olfactory organ, as unless this were done nausea would in all probability supervene. The doses are repeated from time to time until the jolly or hilarious mood comes on, when, in the case of moder ate drinkers, they are stopped; but the moro hardened cases go on till they become dead drunk" or unconscious.
 The ether consumed is tho vilest form which it is possible to procure. It is prepared from the common methylated spirit used for our lamps and other similar purposes. Its cheap ness partially accounts for it's being SC largely used. When we consider that for the sum of dvepence 8 man can get "glorionsly" drunk. as it is called. it is cheap in comparison with whisky.