St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-07-19
WHAT WOMEN DRINK.
Changes Since the Time When
Champagne Was a Great
Rarity.
Now 1t Is Drunk by All Sorts
OF Women as a Matter Of
Course.
A Steady Consumption OF
Brandy and Soda Going
on in the East.
Some Points Sagely Put on
the Inevitable Result Of
1t All.

They were two women, according to
the New York Sun, and they were dis
cussing, in the way two women can, the
follies and faults of all the other women,
when suddenly one looked at the other
and said: do you think women are
drinking more nowadays than they
used to?''
The other one answered: "Think! 1t
is not question of thinking at all.
know it. When l was girl if you were
very delicate, or had travelled a long
Journey, or had studied too much at
school, or just gotten over presenting
the family with new baby you had
glass of port every day to warm you up;
but nowadays we sit down to luncheon,
and what is standing between us?'
And the other one laughed and said:
''Well, it looks like bottle of cham
pagne." "Then," said the first, "when
you were younger where did you see
champagne?"
80. only at wedding breakfasts, or
when there was some great occasion
and somebody elSe's health was drank,
and then we had glass apiece, and
were hilarious, and now"
''And now" repeated the other, VI
drop in to see you, we have a quiet
lunch, to which quart of champagnel is
a necessity, and you would have had
pint if you had been here alone. But 1t
isn't the wine that l think so much
about, as the way women are drinking
other things. l know a little dear,
woman not twenty-five years old, as
pretty as picture, who, if she keeps on
the way she is going, will die from
drink in about four years. She comes
in from a ride in the morning,
warm and flushed. and her maid
rushes around and brings her a glass
of brandy and soda. She begins to dress
to 90 down town. Her toilet is made
fresh and her bonnet tied on, when she
says, Just before she goes out, oh,
dear! / will have little brandy straight
10 give me courage, Marie;' and Marie
brings her little liqueur glass, and
madame has little brandy straight.
She comes back to luncheon, or goes
some place else to lunch, and she drinks
the greater part of quart OF cham
payne, and she finishes up with pony
of brandy taken in her coffee. Then.
during the afternoon. before she dresses
for a drive, she has another brandy and
soda. When she goes home tired out,
she puts on her dressing gown, throws
herself on her bed, and her husband
comes in, kisses her, asks her how she
is, and she says she is not very well,
and he, like the fool he is, says, We'll.
let's YOU and | have cocktail together
and they do, and he strolls off to dress
for dinner; she takes a nap, gets up
after awhile, makes an elaborate toilet,
drinks three or four kinds of wine with
her dinner, and makes her husband
laugh at the end of it by smoking
cigarette and having very tall glass OF
b. and s. with him, which Is. pretty
heavy with brandy by the way; and
Just before she goes to bed they have
another one together, and he pats her
OH the shoulder and looks into her face
and says: Isn't it nice, dear, that you
and | can be real companions. as we'll
as awfully fond of each other and she
smiles and says, Yes But the man is
not to blame for this"
The other woman says, "WhO isT'
The first answers, That autocrat
known as fashion. This girl, educated
on the other side. sees her English
friends drinking and drinking, and she
does not think of the difference of con-
situations; she does not think of the
difference of atmosphere; she only
thinks what smart thing it is to do as
they do, and how very English, and the
result is going to be deadly American.
for she will die of it just as certain S
you and | are living, and die pretty
SOOn."
"Well," remarked the other woman,
what amaZeS me is how women drink
in the most open manner and think
there is no harm in it. | can forgive
woman drinking everything in the world
but whisky, but to see a woman sit
down with a glass of whisky and
small glass OF ice water beside her and
fire the whisky in herself, as we throw
coal into stove, and finish up with a
mOuthful of ice water, which must be
frightful shock to her stomach, is in my
eyes worse SIN than any in the deca-
logue. OF course, l came from the
South, and it is different there. Women
drink what they want to, but they seem
generally to like a glass of sherry or
Madeira, or fancy drinking a milk
punch. or a sherry cODbler, or a mint
iulep. drinks that once heard an old
darky remark were ladylike drinks.",
Don't you Think" asks one of the
feminine interrogatOry points, "rhat the
physical culture within has had little
to do with the drinking-that which has
made women stronger, more muscular,
less feminine, and having more of the
instincts of the brute man? Person
ally like the brute man, but l don't
like his instincts in pettlcoats. Then
the cigarette smoking is to blame for
the drinking, American women think
that because French and Russian
women can smoke cigarettes coquet-
tishly and prettily they can do the same.
Now they can't. The American woman
is an extremist always, and the cOnSe-
ouence is that when she begins to
smoke cigarettes she smokes with the
fury-well, of an American woman,
and she has got to drink some to keep
her throat from getting so dreadfully
dry. A lemonade or milk punch does
not seem to be exactly the thing for the
cigarette, so the brandy and soda or
whisky and ginger ale naturally fol-
low"
The other woman looked up gravely
and announced as the ultimatum that
american women are drinking more
than ever before" And her friend
sighed, and each lifted up long, slen-
der gold and white glass filled to the
brim with cool, sparkling champagne,
laughed, and the younger of the two
said: Here's to love, the only emotion
in this world worth living for"
And that was the way they decided
whether drinking was getting the better
of woman in this country.
ROMANCE AND IT'S SEOUEI,