Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-07-01

men. but they won't stand for the native
wines Of their own state when Il comes to
drinking them themselves. They'll tell Wis
itHrS now r7't"h s'-n~r'rr to ~ othe- -'irH.
imported and otherwise, their stiu and
sif-f@i4ns Mi.es AID the. they ,.-p
into a cafe and take a bottle of French
Burgundy or champagne at dinner. on the
whoie, a man can drink with more social
IMMUNITY out on the Pacific coast and espe-
cially San Francisco. than in any other sec
ton OF the country / know Of When a
man goes to the dogs through drink out In
san FRANCISCO his friends shake their heads
and murrnur expressions of regret that the
Nlctim wasn't better endowed by nature
with the capacity TO handle liquor, and not
have liquor handle him.
Another thing about drinking ont In
san francisco: There's a large ahsfnthe
clientele growing up out there. 1 was talk
ing the other day with friend who sells
liquors and cordials all over the country
and he told me that San Francisco is the
biggest absinthe-consumingc community for
its size. by long odds. in the country. He
told me, too. by the way that there's quito
a good deal of the green stuff sold in this
town. considering the sobriety of the place
which is matter of talk among travelling
liquor men.
Worse Than Opium.
II don't understand how any sensible
man can make a regular tipple of absinthe
1t is really worse than opium The French
know how to handle absinthe sanely, just
d. tht tnlileSe KNOW now to smoke their
opium without becoming fiends and killing
themselves with it, but the American man
doesn't know how to use either of these
things moderately. and he never will
Absinthe will eat the brain out of man
who drinks. ii steadily within a very few
years. l know a man who drinks ahsinthe
and whole lot of it. in order that his wife
may not detect the smell of liquor on HIS
breath when ne salutes her upon his ar
rival home He thinks he's sober after
ing
into himself. That's characteristic OF
the man who drinks absinthe. He always
thinks he's as straight and as sober 4
| judge. no matter how erratic his actions
may be. So that l don't fancy this man l
speak Of is fooling his wife by drinking
absinthe. / in the cafe of a Wash
ington hotel the other evening with this
man-he's a Washingtonian-and in the
course of couple of hours Of talk he took
three absinthe frappes and two straight
absnthes-big. four-fngered drinks of the
green fluid. He wasn't exactly intoxicated
when we got up. but he had queer pair
| of beady eyes, and talked rather haItingly
and he looked to me like man who had
| just come ost of a hop joint l wouldn't
! take five straight drinks OF straight alb
sinthe for one thousand dollars cash in
hand.
staid Old Philadelphia.
Probably you don't know that there is
| a whole lot of heavy drinking among bust
ness and professional men in the staid old
| city of Philadelphia, Ell? Well. there is.
| Philadelphians are crafty drinkers and
| they are very correct in their manner of
| drinking. Those little cabinet saloons.
| where you walk up to the liquor buffet and
| pour out your own drink, are scattered all
| over the downtown portion Of Philadel-
| phia. They are veritable little holes in the
wall, and most of them are purposely iso-
lated from the main thoroughfares-any
number Of them, in fact, are located in
| alleys. These places do a land office
| business all during business hours.
| Go into any of them at any hour
| of the working day and you'll find plenty
Of sedate, somber-clad men of mil die age
| deacon here and there, / su5pect-the
| lawyers with their Philadelphia black bags
slung over their arms-facing the wall and
| taking their little nips These men
wouldn't think of standing up at a bar in
corner saloon and taking a smile. l dom
think their way of drinking is quite hon
est. If man wants to drink, and knows
| how to drink moderately, it's nobody's
| business but his own. and there is no par
| ticular occasion for him to sneak about ii.
In the Middle West.
Chicago is beer town mostly. So are
| nearly all the cities in the middle west.
Perhaps the most gigantic glass Of beer in
the world for the money is purveyed over
| the bars of Chicago's cheap-grade saloons
for nickel. They have quart goblets Cor
|
| goblet costs a nickel. l wouldn't vouch for
| the quality of the beer, however. Then
there are and , cent beer establishments
| in Chicago, and when | was last there L
| saw one place where large, flowing. foamy
| glass of beer was offered on a signboard
| for a cert. | should be pretty thirsty be-
| fore I'd undertake to tackle that
st. Louis is a whisky town from away
| back. and the morning drinking habit is be-
| ginning TO be accepted there. More import
| ID champagnes are consumed in Denver
| than in any other city Of equal size on the
| continent.
| you'll be able to buy good drink Of
| whisky now and then in Washington or in
| New York OF in Baltimore or in any other
| place, but it's all a matter OF luck. The
| SWEETEST cafes don't purvey the best wills
| ky over their bars by a good deal. There
| are no barrel houses, so called. here in
| Washington. but there are plenty of them
| in New York. and I've often seen New
York men who take a few drinks OF what
| they think is good whisky every day shud-
| Ter when their eyes fell upon the Bowery
| signs Offering A Large Glass Of Fine Ken
| lucky Bourbon Whisky for Cents Well
| they'"e no need to shudder. That whisky
| is really a good deal better than a whole
| lot of the whisky that is sold over pre-
tentious bars in New York and elsewhere
| for Is even 20 cents. It's new whisky
| that's all, but it's rarely doctored article.
Where brandy is Popular.
THE leading brandy town for its size in
| ing exploited by folks who dream during
the day a more beautiful city than
Washington. Perhaps Detroit's conuguity
to Canada has something to do with its
appetite for brandy, for the Canucks are
brandy tipplers of the most confirmed sort.
| In Montreal, Ottawa and Quebec you'll see
three times as much street drunkenness as
| IN any American cities of equal size, and
drinking &c the stage of helplessness does
not appear to be much frowned upon
up there as it is in the United States.
Speaking in general, / am of the opinion
that the taste for strong waters is not in
CT easing in this country. on the contrary,
| believe ii is gradually but surely decreas-
ing. 1t is certain. at any rate, that the
production of whisky in this country is not
by any means keeping pace with the in
crease in population. and, if the law OF
supply and demand is still in force, this
ought to show that less whisky is wanted
for consumption. Moreover, the consump-
ton of whisky per capita has been gradu-
ally decreasing in this country for the
past fifteen years. The tendency in the