Evening star., 1894-01-13

SUBJECT that even the comic papers have
respected the pitiable lapse, and have re-
trained from making jokes on a question
OF such serious import
but pretending not to see an evil is not
'he way to get rid of it. Doctors may
eau IL py euphonistic scientific names: d.
vines may not feel it to be their interest
10 move the question; w. c. T. u socie-
ties may consider the divinities of the
avenues outside their efforts; but women
Of wealth and influence cannot longer
anord to neglect vice which is a blot
upon their order. and which If suffered to
take its course is quite capable of under
mining the whole glittering structure OF
their social world
The excessive use Of wine and spirits by
women of culture is a vice of this era
Many brilliant and famous men have been
notorious drunkards; but l fail to remem-
per one famous woman witfr this stigma
darkening her name in all the past GEN.
turtles. Our drawing room drinking is a
phase OF our special social life, and has
sprung from the almost superhuman de-
mands OF society upon women-the social
friskir ess-the afternoon wit-the great fun
the go'-which is expected at continual
functions OF so-called pleasure. and the
necessity that the members of them should
be up to their work.
Growth of the Evil.
And unfortunately the entering in OF
this vice is so natural that 1t is hardly OBJ
served. A glass of wine or tablespoon
ful OF brandy is privately taken some day
TO meet the social strain, and is found
to be apparently restorative. The stimu-
liant makes the taker feel that the dance
or the dinner, which seemed to be impos-
sible. Is possible; and thus she is tempted
to renewal of the labor which she has
just dropped from exhaustion. But she
was already worn out, and the brandy
taken only helped her to wear herself
further out, and so even physically the
last state of that woman was worse than
the first. These little sips of spirit soon
lead the taker of them beyond her own
control; the intervals between them de-
she is aware she has drifted into courses
without excuse and full of danger; for
just as soon as woman feels incompetent
without her usual drink the barriers OF
safety have been already passed.
1t must be allowed that the conditions
under which the terms of fashionable hard
labor are carried on in their seasons are
full of temptations to the use of stimu-
lants-the heated vitiated atmospheres of
ball rooms-the late hours-the overloaded
stomachs from feasts of many courses
the numerous engagements following one
arother In ceaseless routine-all these
things clamor for artificial aid. But the
champagne usually taken under such cir
cumstances only jogs the nerves, and so
quiet them. Stimulants cannot create
strength, and a dose of wine that makes
| tired woman feel Jolly" that gives her
tone" and go is bought by such par
ceptions. and such weakening of the brain
as dulls her moral senses. For women
ought to clearly understand that the ex-
citement produced by wine results from an
incipient paralysis of the nervous system.
The physical results. however, are not the
worst results. DIR. Anste in his work on
stimulants plainly says that 1.-The essence
of intoxication consists in the destruction
of that power in the brain which retains
or recalls moral and prudential impress
sions." And as it is also well known that
there is in the brain substance a positive
attraction for alcohol. woman may well
feel afraid to encourage a vice which is
not only to fight from the outside, but
which is powerfully aided by mutiny from
within.
The Effects of Alcohol.
Neither can stimulation by alcohol be
hidden. The youngest man knows whether
his partners high spirits are the natural
joyousness of her nature or the result of
champagne. If the latter. the flushed face
the loosened tongue. the reckless manner
reveal at once the unhealthy brain action;
the woman has unveiled to him the lowest
part of her nature; and If for the hour he
sympathizes and responds, real affection or
actions. Any physician, any ordinary man,
knows that the physical and moral effects
of alcohol on woman is to denaturalize
her.
But will any consideration of physical
and moral health prevent woman from
drinking of that cup which, in the end
"stingeth like an adder?" 1t is certainly
always easy to check virtuous impulse
by reflection that to carry it out will in
h. W. a
similar consideration. There is. however
one circumstance that is favorable in this
case-very few women drink because they
like to drink. They often loath the spirit
they swallow. 1t is not their palate they
desire to please it is that they may saturate
their nervous system, and thus be equal to
their social engagements and in their
highest feather during them. But at what
a frightful cost they do this let them ask
their physician, and if he is truthful with
them they will trembe to count it. Let
the young ask the middle aged, and they
will admit that if twenty or thirty years ago
paralysis slew it's thousands it now Stays
it's tens of thousands. They will admit that
in society there is a distinct moral relaxa-
women are more daring and reckless, and
maidens more unabashed, and that the
tendency of that society which calls itself
good is to the particular license resulting
from over stimulation from alcoholic
drinks
Other fashionable faults may be con-
doned may admit of palliation, may be
thrown off by an exercise of will, or dropped
because they have become questionable
but the increase of drawing room drinking
attacks society in its most vital part.
Women are the salt of the world, but If
the salt loses it's SAVIOR, what then? VIII
not the decomposition of the social world
follow? Men may drink with far greater
impunity than women, both personally and
socially. Personally they have more will
power to resist the domination of alcohol;
and socially their influence and example as
slaves to it is far less disintegrating. 1t is
a great truth that vice in woman is more
of a crime than the same vice in a man.
For in social manners and customs con-
duct is more than law, and women are the
autocrats of conduct and custom. If, then,
women should ever make certain vices toll
cradle, there would be no barrier left
against then; and the influx of many sec
ondary passions would be natural and GER
tain. drinking woman is a social crimi-
nal of the worst type, and the idea is so
shocking that it requires an effort of tine
will to contemplate her.
What Society Owes to Itself.
It is in the great social centers, where life
Is most vivid and brilliant, that this evil
exists. Fortunately. though wide enough
to deserve attention, it has not become gen.