The Evening dispatch. [volume] (Provo, City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1894-08-04
AWFUL ABsINTHE.
fHE HORRIBLE DRUG WHICH IS POP
ULAR IN FRANCE.

1 bO1lCtbnC IN the w OTI0s
3 During the Algerian war, which last
ed from 1874 to 1S47, the French arm,
were more in danger from African fe
vers than from Algerian enemies. Sew
eral things were tried as antidotes O
preventives by the skiliiul army physi
clans. Finally absinthe was hit on a
the most effective febrifuge.
The soldiers were ordered to mix i
in small quantities three times day
with the ordinary French wine. Tht
luckless happy go-lucky privares grew
to like their medicine, which at first
Shey swore at bitterly for spelling with
its bitterness that beautiful purple vine
gar they fondly fancy is wine. Blu!
when absinthe alone began to usurp the
time honored place of claret In the at.
fections of the French army the evil be.
came an unmixed one.
Absinthe straight as beverage is a
direly different thing from absinthe
mixed as medicine or an occasional
tonic. The victorious army on theis
triumphal return to Paris Brought the
habit with them It is now SO wide
EpSoad through all classes of Partisan
society-and Paris gives the cue to
France-that Frenchmen Of science and
publicists regard the custom of absinths
| tippling as vast national evil.
The consequence of the use-and use
OF this drug ripens to abuse, even with
men Of unusual will power-has been
in France disastrous to a dreadful de-
gree. Many men Of remarkable bril-
hancy haze offered up their brains and
their lives on the ivid altar of absinthe.
Baudelaire, who translated all Poe's
works into French, had terribly gro
tesque passion for the pleasant green
poison. In one of his mad freaks this
minor French poet actually painted his
hair the same tint as the beverage that
corroded his brain, possibly from en
odd fancy to have the outside of his
head correspond with or match the in
side.
Alfred de Musset, who was the French
Byron, plus tenderer, naiver touch,
also fell a victim to the drug after
George Sand gave the final smash to his
fragmentary heart. Guy de Maupassape
is reported to have burned his brains
away with the same emeraldine flames.
The brain disease caused by this drug is
considered almost incurable. Far worse
than alcohol or opium, it can only be
compared to cocaine for the fellness of
its clutch on poor humanity.
Yet we take it occasionally as an
after dinner settler of digestive debts il
this country, and quite often as an ap-
petizer or tonic before meals, while in
New Orleans, throughout the older quar-
ter, little cabarets, devoted almost ex-
clusively to the sale of it, are quite
common.
What, then, is this dreadful drins
composed of, and how is it made? The
answer is easy enough, though the proc
ess, to insure perfection in the evil, is |
not SO. Absinthe may be technically
described as Redistribution of alcoholic |
spirits (made originally from various
things potatoes, for instance), in |
which, to give it the final character,
absinthium with other aromatic herbs |
and bitter roots are ground up. or mac
Grated, in chemist lingo.
The chief ingredient is the tops and
leaves of the herb Artemisia absinthium,
or NORWOOD, which grows from two
to four feet in great profusion under
cultivation, and which contains vola-
tile oil, absinthol, and yellow, crys-
talline, resinous compound called alb.
sinthin, which is the bitter principle.
The alcohol with which this and the
essentials of other aromatic plants are
mixed holds these volatile oils in solu-
ton.
It is the precipitation Of these oils in
water that causes the rich clouding Of
your glass when the absinthe is poured
on the cracked ice-double emblems or
warnings of the clouding and the crack.
ling Of your brain if you take to il
steadily. Thus every drink Of the opaline
liquid is an object lesson in chemistry
that carries Its own moral.
Some barroom Columbus, ambitious
60 Guido Dante and add another lower
circle to the inferno, recently in2spted
or discovered the absinthe cocktail A
little whisky-the worse the better-a
dash of bitters, little sugar and plenty
of iced absinthe make about the quickest
and wickedest intoxicant in the world.
The continued use of absinthe gives
rise to epileptic symptoms as an external
of the profound disturbance
Of the brain and nerves, One large dose
Of the essen5e of the wormvood indeed
has been noted as causing almost instant
" epileptiform commissions in animals.
But the drug is not without its uses from
a broad point of view. As the name i'm
plies, it is an anthelmintic, or pretty
sure cure for certain kinds of animal
life that sometimes infest the intestines
IF men, causing pain and death. This
peculiar property was well known to
the Greeks, who had wine infused
with wormwood called absinthites.
In some parts of Germany NORWOOD
is used in lieu of hops for the brewing
Of certain brands of beer, and it unques-
ionably has valuable tonic properties,
Absinthe is made almost everywhere,
except in the extreme tropics, and the
New York variety is just as good-or
bad-as any. The duty on French alb
sinthe is very high-$12 case of a
dozen bottles.
The first effects of it are profound
serenity of temper and slight height
ening of the mental powers, coupled
with bodily inertia. This is the general
rule; but as a famous physician once re-
marked of dreadful disorder in his
lecture room, Gentlemen, the chief
glory of the beautiful disease am now
is the remarkable variety Of
Ia m ifnStatinns O-Nnrrr Yorlr XNorld