The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1896-02-16
MODERN KINGS SOBER
An Example Set i'm AbstemiOus-
ness to Their Subjects.
DRUNKENNESS is BAD FORM.
Prussia. Holland, Italy and sweden
Had Alcoholic Kings-Queen Vic
toria's Influence.

Ex-AtFache in the New York Tribune.
While staLsCcians are al variance as TO
whether the amount o. crime and insanity
due 10 the abuse or stimulalts shows any
Serious signs OF decEne. yet they are per-
fectiy agreed upon one significant and graf
flying fact, namely. that drunkenness is
each year becoming more and more re-
ssr3ctea 20 the ignorant and poveFTy-sir.ck-
ea masses. occupying the lowest degree
OF the social and intellectual scale. While
this IS mansfestly attributable, in me
main. 70 tas extraordinary progress and
rapid extension of popular education since
the last three or four decades. il is likewise
due. in no small measure, 10 the example
set by those .ho, as soyeTeigns and as
princes of the blood. may be justly regard
ed as leading the fashions, influencing the
manners. and acting as arb.ters OF society
IN maonarehical countries
Ine5rieEy is no longer fashionable. as il
Was n the times Of their fathers and grand
fathers. when man who went 70 bed sober
was regarded with d4strusJ as a moral
anomaly, and the diner who could not put
away ar least his three bottles of port at
a sitting was unworthy OF the title OF
gentleman Today drunke mess IS con-
demned as bad form. ana society. instead
OF viewing il with favor, or even with
sood-natured Indulgence, frowns upon It
with every manifestation of disgust and
even anger. For tbs radical transforma-
ton Of an old-tsme custom AMI fashion.
Europe is Indebted TO those who act as It's
leaders Ia such matters, namely, the
snolnted OF the Lord.
AhsteFnIousness constitutes today the
predominant note at every one OF the royal
and imperial courts Of the Old World, and
the rulers who now occupy the thrones OF
Europe are as distinguished for their tenn
perance alike IN drinking and eating as
their predecessors We're the reverse. Thus
K.ug Humbert restricts himself 10 wine
diluted with water. whereas his father.
King Victor Emmanuel. the RE Gallant
'uomo." was won't 10 indulge "a drunken
carouses with his mor-anatic wife, the
gamekeeper's daughter RosIna, whom he
created Countess OF M!raflore. and who
used when inebriated 10 respond TO his
blows by hurting the crockery al his head.
Emperor Francs Joseph's favorite bever-
age is Pslsener beer. which is served TO him
even al the grandest of state hanquets, at
the court Of Vienna. He drinks but little
vine. although the imperial cellars are the
most celebrated in the world Indeed, II IS
10 his ahstemio1sness that he is chiefly IN
debted for the remarkable preservation or
his elasticity. of his physical as we'll as
mental xigor and of his health; this, too,
In spite of far heavier succession OF mis-
fortunes national, as well as domestic
than fan to the share of most men. His
predecessor on the throne, the sem--imbe-
Gle EnDeror Ferdinand, was renowned for
his drunken habits. and ii is no secret that
the appalling Ats of epilepsy which wrecked
his mind and rendered his abdtcation Inn
ueratfve. were, in most cases, the re-
suit OF an excessive Indulgence IN what
are described as the pleasures OF the Ia
HE