The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1894-03-01
TEMPERANCE NOTES.
The Growing Use of Drink by Women OF
CuIture
A SOCIAL MENACE.


There is an evil under the sun which
has, within the last decade, made itself
too manifest among the ranks of fash
ionable women to be longer ignored
an evil which may be politely called
the overuse of alcoholic stimulants. If
men uGre the offenders another far
more specific name would be used, but
this vice in connection with women is
so abnormal, so subversive of all the
ideas and traditions associated with
the sex, that there is a very strong
tendency to hush up all mention of it..
With the exception of one or two So
ciety papers of the bravest sort, and
one or two purely ladies' newspapers,
the press-usually so fearless in de-
nouncing social sores-has been nearly
retlcent on the matter. And it is an
evidence of the deep feeling on this
subject that even the comic papers have
respected the pitiable lapse, and have
refrained from making jokes on a ques-
ton of such serious import.
But pretending not to see an evil is
not the way to get rid of it. Doctors
may call it by euphonistic scientific
names; divines may not feel it to be
their interest to move the question;
w. c. T. U. societies may consider
the divinitics of the avenues outside
their efforts; but women of wealth and
influence can not longer afford to neg
lect a vice which is blot upon their
order and which, if suffered to take its
course, is quite capable of undermin-
ing 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 drunlsards; but
fail to remember one famous woman,
with this stigma darkening her name,
in all the past centuries. Our drawing
room drinking is a phase of our special
socia! life, and has sprung from the
almost supeYhuman demands of
society upon women-the social
friskiness - the afternoon wit - the
great fun-the 'go"-which is expect
ed at continual functions of so-called
pleasure, and the necessity that the
members of them should be up to their
work
And unfortunately the entering in of
this vice is so natural that it is hardly
observed. A glass of wine or ia BILE
spoonful of brandy is privately taken
some day to meet the social strain, and
is found to be apparently restorative.
The stimulant makes the taker feel
that the dance or the dinner, which
seemed to be impossible, is possible;
I'D q, 4 al b., al
of the labor which she had just dropped
from exhaustion. But she was already
worn out, and the brandy taken only
helped to wear herself further out;
and SO. even physically, the last state
of that woman was worse than the
first. Thee little sips of spirit soon
lead the taller of them beyond her own
CONTROL the intervals between them
decrease, the quantities increase. and
before she is aware she has drfted into
courses without excuse and full of dam
ger: for just us soon as a woman feels
Incompetent without her usual drink,
the barriers of safety have been already
passed.
1t must be allowed that the condi-
tons under which the terms of fashion
able hard labor are carried on in their
seasons are full of temptations to the
use of StimulantS. The heated vitiated
atmospheres of bathrooms, the late
hours, the overloaded stomachs from
feasts of many courses, the numerous
engagements following one another in
ceaseless routine - all these things
clamOr for artificial aid. But the
champagne usually taken under such
circumstances only joys the nerves,
and so invites the'uSe of some stronger
liquor to quiet them. Stimulants can
not create strength, and dose of wine
that makes Il tired woman feel Jolly"
that gives her tone and "f o." is
bought by such paralysis of the nerves
as disorders her perceptions, and such
weakening Of the brain as dulls her
moral senses. For women ought to
clearly understand that the excitement
produced by wine results from an in
cipjent paralysis of the nervous system.
The physical results, however, are
not the worst results. DR.. Anstie. in
his work on stimulants, plainly says
that the essence OF intoxication con-
s;sts in the destruction of that power
in the brain which retains or recalls
moral and prudential impressions"
And as it is also we'll known that there
is in the brain substance a positive at
traction for alcohol woman may well
feel afraid to encourage 4 vice which
is not only to fight from the outside,
but which IS powerfully aided by mu
tiny from within.
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 loosencd 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 sympa-
thizes and responds, real affection or
real respect have no part in his words
or actions. Any physician, any ordi-
nary man, knows that the physical and
moral effects of alcohol on q woman
are TO denaturalize her.
But will any considerations of phys
ical and moral health prevent women
from drinking OF that cup which in the