Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-11-09

Real Wine.
(marc) and fruits of all kinds. which are
used in the manufacture of alcohol.
Yet this latter class of materials with all
due respect for the English and American
belief in liquor made from grains) is the
only one likely to give an alcohol which is
not directly injurious. All this is fairly we'll
known to the Parisians, who read the papers
with commendable regularity, until they be-
gin to sheer even at their own ws>Ses. With
in the past week have heard two f.1-1un
ladies express their opinion that if you want
good French wine you had best go to Brus-
sells or London for it.
1t is understood that for every Paris tip
pier there are two or three or half dozen,
for all We know, respectable Parisians who
do not frequent cafes, who do not drink
nervous drinks, who stick to wine and beer.
Some of the Safeguards.
The balance, the people one sees drinking
in public about 100000 as far as the pres
ent writer can judge have a set of special
safeguards to impede the scandalous abuse
of such dangerous drinks.
1. The presence of ladies. I do not speak
of the new woman, who has always eX-
listed. since the days of Sappho. or. If that
Is too much. Aspasia. 1 mean ordinary wo-
men, plain women, nice women, ladies even,
Paris, there their wives may go with them.
There will be nearly always as many wo-
men in a cafe or brasSerie men. You
do rot want to be drunken-silly before la
dies, do you? You cannot get into converse
ton with strangers and ask them to take
a drink and then be treated in return if
there are ladies in the party? The ladies
of any small town or district in America
have 1t In their power to purify the
looms, were they not too lazy, too little
caring and too proud. Let them form a
union to send off relays Of their numbers
every night to every saloon in the district
hot mil with
lump Of sugar in it, as they do in Paris.
2 The French have a habitual self-con-
troll in drinking. Even when they are feel
ing very nervous, they conceal it. The
and excitable: So they are-but if Amer
leans had half the nerves they would be
yelling "Fire!'
g. The worst drinks have their regular
hours. You only drink the absinthes, YER
mouths and bitters before meals. They are
never taken after meals, except by lost
souls and sodden workingmen. Quick
thanking up" is impracticabIe EXCEPT at an
American bar'or at plebeian wine shop
which 1t Is like social death to be seen
entering In all respectable places people
sit down to drink.
f. Thus sitting there are special distrac-
tions to take the attention from constant
drinking: (D all the newspapers, daily and
Illustrated, furnished free; (b) the games
or dominoes, chess. Checkers (c) card
games. and all the gambling you please.
with these. used cards are furnished free;
If you want new cards. you pay for them;
(O the privilege of looking at the ladies'
ana commenting on their charms of person
and attire; and (e) the terrace" which is
sitting on the open street under an awning
and looking at the crowd go by.
D. The recent introduction and immense
growing popularity of German beer Cfrom
Munich. This is due to no newspaper talk,
TO no philanthropic movement. 1t Is q nat
ural movement of trade, called for by the
nerves of Parisians. Every absinthe drink
er who hopes to continue living and not
dle miserably must SO TO speak, go out to
grass from time to time, must take re-
treat must stop to look after his brain
One is doing it this week, another next
week, another next month. German beer
Is his opportunity. The brandy drinker
Off.
Reform Talked OF.
With all this the people are uneasy, and
things look black in France. Whatever
may be said against the present French
republic, 1t has labored to establish a.
Utopian liberty of the Individual with re-
spect to his personal actions. This search
for liberty has been constantly misunder-
stood and abused, at home and abroad.
And In no phase Of the activity Of the
citizen Is the abuse becoming more ap-
parent than in. that which has to do with
alcohol Heretofore the Idea has been that
three
apple trees shall have liberty to freely dis
till and every shopkeeper have liberty to
freely sell, so shall every youth and maiden
have liberty to freely buy and drink and
every drunken individual have liberty to
whoop and sing. Being possessed of these
liberties. fraternities and equalities, each
citizen ought to be held responsible for his
misuse of them.
beginning to be looked on as insufficient.
From 1881 down to the present month
propositions OF reforms monumental in
their completeness and scientific character
have been submitted to the public and to
legislators. Pascal Duprat In 1881, Claude
Senator Of the Vosges) in 1887 and Jamais
In 1889 have said well nigh everything.
The late President Carnot was author of
another report, and SO have been ex-Min-
listers Rouvier and PeytraL And the pres
ent year has seen (besides the congress in
Switzerland the congress of Bordeaux a
three-weeks' debate in the chamber of
deputies and conclaves of the Academy of
Medicine, the Academy of Moral and Po-
litical Sciences and the Superior Council Of
Public Assistance of Paris.
The latest proposition Of law has five
planks:
First-To reduce the number Of places
where alcoholic drinks are sold.
Second-To make as low as possible all
taxes on beer and cider, while exercising a
supervision over the quality of those
drinks.
Third-To tax wine moderately and to
take measures against It's harmful aduIter-
alton.
Fourth-To increase the tax on spurious
liquors and to allow in commerce only that
which is hygienically pure.
F1fth-To absolutely prohibit absinthe and
similar aperitifs in which the essential oils
exercise pernicious influence on the hu-
man organism.
Being thus documented, as they say In
French, let us take a glass of California
claret. well watered, and pass on.
STERLING HELLO.