The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1891-10-30
ALCOHOLISM IN FRANCE.
The Enormous Consumption of Wines by
the French People.

the French People.
The atrocious crimes and verdicts
that make a criminal court in this coun-
try veritable chamber of horrors and
indicate a marked affinity between the
criminals and the jurors, are attributed
by many observant Frenchmen to the
alarming prevalence of alcoholism
throughout France.
There is Il popular error in the United
States that drunkenness does not pre-
vail in wine producing countries This
may be true where pure wine is sup
piled to the people at cheap rates; but
this is a thing of the fargone past in
France. The analysis made by NJ.
Girard, the director of the Paris labora-
tory. shows that ninetytwo per cent. of
the cheap wines offered for sale in the
French market are adulterated, the
adulteration consisting chiefly Of
diluted alcohol or the cheaper methy-
lated spirits.
The supply of native wine falls far
below the demand, and hence adultera-
tions are stimulated to meet the gem
eral thirst for vinous beverages at
low price This explains the we'll
known fact that wine. so-called, is
never so cheap and abundant as when
the grape crop fails. Whenever, there
fore, there is a general failure of the
grape crop of FraGce the masses of her
people who are addicted to wine bib
bling should feel a sense of gratitude
akin to that of the Irishman who, on
beholding the vast quantities of food
that poured into Ireland from the United
States during the great famine of 1871,
gratefully exclaimed: The Lord bless
the Americans! If it hadn't been for
the famine we'd be all starvin to
DEATH
1t should also be noted that for many
years France has imported more wine
than she has exported, although her
grape crop, even when most bountiful,
is supplemented by immense shipments
of raisins from Italy, Spain and Portu-
gal. These raisinS are fermcnted in
combination with the juice of grapes
to increase the wine product.
AS the consumption of these wines
has attained the enormous rate of forty
gallons per capita per annum, in add
ton to vast quantity of brandy,
equally adulterated, and a very consid-
cradle amount of ain-corroding alb
sinthe, it would be very surprising if
the great body of the French people
were not in state of chronic drunken
ness.
have visited fifty-four of the eighty
six departments of France. and | can
attest, with perfect truth, that her
rural population has shared in the gem
eral deterioration, and no longer ex-
hibits the homely virtues that we asso-
ciate with rustic life. The faces of the
vast majority of French agricultural
laborers are red with wine and eau de
vie, and very large proportion of
their earnings is paid to settle their
scores at the pot houses.
A recent French writer, referring to
the spread of drunkenness throughout
the hamlcts of France, says:
In the villages the women are
obliged. like the wives of worllmen in
the cities, to hang about the wine shops
on pay days in order to fight for their
children's bread with the victims of al
coholic shipwrcck. Instead of putting
away his sous and silver in the clothes
press or in Il corner near his chimney,
and saving them for rainy day as he
formerly did, the countryman now
spends them freely in daily visits to
the tavern" To this degeneration
of her agricultural class may be
imputed the fact that, although France
has been favored for many years with
good crops, yet her imports of food
products have steadily increased.
amounting in the year 1890 to 1, 400, O00,-
900 francs, or nearly $3.50, 100000, thus
exceeding her exports of such products
for that year Sl1S,OOO, 900.
n Notwithstanding all these evils that
beset the republic of France, and de-
spite her vast debt of s., 900, 900, 600, the
largest ever borne by any nation, she
still marches bravely forward under
her mighty burden. For twenty-one
years, the longest period by a decade
that republican institutions have sur
vived within her limits, she has illus.
trated in the midst of ''mightiest mon
arches the benign principle of ''gov-
eminent by the people and for the peo-
pie" of which our own great republic
is the highest embodiment. She is now
a pctGnt political force, and every year
of her existence serves to swell the
current of republican thought that is
surely, though slowly, undermining
every throne in Europe from the Neva
to the Thames.
May her rulers soon learn that
Righteousness exalteth a nation" and
avert retributive justice by removing
from France the stigma of being the
Sabbathless land.-Americus, in n. Y.
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