Daily Kennebec journal., 1902-03-25
DRINKING VINO.
The Native Philippine Drink
That Causes Insanity.
Stories Of Its Effects Upon the Amer
ican Soldier.
Ills Poisonous Sap Distilled from the
Nipa Palm.

had in the Philippines. 1t is called
vino, and two drinks of the dangerous
nepenthe will drive dread, homesick-
ness, and everything else out of the
victims head, except a helliSh desire
to do evil. 1t is not desire to do gen.
eral mischief thai enters the mind of
the vino fiend." he almost always
turns toward one specific object, to
the accomplishment of which he bends
all his energies.
As the thing which he tries tC do is
something exactly opposite to- what is
expected of him when sober and in his
right mind, one soldier in camp under
the influence of vino is worse than a
dcZen of the enemy.
"Philippinitis' is the word coined to
describe the condition of the man adj
dicted to drinking vino. Not one but
a dozen orders have been issued by
&C mmanders in the islands prohibiting
the drinking of this sense-benumbing
product of the sap of The Nipa palm,
but they hardly can be called effective.
The last order was made by Brigadier
General Bell, in LuZon, who placed the
drinking of vino among the graver
military offenses.
Insanity, leading to murder or sui
tive concoction drives it's victims.
These cases, fortunately, are few, be-
cause the commanding officers are
awake to the danger, but it is said on
authority that 80 per cent. of the Of
fenses against military discipline COM
mitted in the Philippines is by men
whose brains have been turned by this
peculiar drink, and who, therefore,
can not be held to be strictly account
able for their actions.
With the return of every transport to
America patches of men so broken in
mind and body as to be unfit for service
are relieved from duty. Discharged
because of disability" is the charitable
entry opposite the names of many on
the roster, how many only those who
keep accounts in Washington know.
Severe service in a tropical climate
had much to do with it: vino in one or
several of its enticing forms had
more. And all the records are not in
Washington by any means. for where
a habit becomes a disease there is al
ways a little latitude for an effort to
save an honorable soldiers name.
This was done in the case of a men,
ber of the Twenty first regiment, who
went through Cuba with anirreproach-
able record, and was a model soldier,
gentle, honorable and brave. His COM
pany was electrified one day by his
arrest in the streets of Manila. He
had complained against himself and
wished to be punished for stealing sew
eral thousand dollars from a wealthy
old Spanish woman. He told all he
knew about it, which was that he had
taken three drinks of vino out of a
bottle given to him by a native, and
was seized with an insane desire to
get money. How he entered the wO-
mans house and stole her hoard he
did not remember. The surgeons made
careful study of his case and were
convinced that he told the absolute
truth. The money was returned, and
what punishment he received is not
recorded in Washington.
A remarkable case was that of a
regular who probably had another name
but who was known familiarly by his
comrades as Texas. He was a big
fellow. who had seen hard service and
had run the gamut of the liquors Of
this country from mescal to old rye
and escaped unscathed. He was
quartered with a squad on the out
skirts of Manila in one of several
shacks. This was in the dangerous
days of that city, when trouble was
looked for from within it's confines as
well as from without. 1t was severe
guard duty, with nothing to do except
look down the burning road until the
eyes grew red or pace his allotted
space of sentrygo until Texas heavy
heels had worn a path to the next
guard. From a jovial fellow he be-
came strangely silent with the bittel
monotony of it all, but his mates pu
1t down to their implacable enemy
homesckness. When they spoke tc
him he replied with curses and h,
answered his captain sullenly
One night there was 4 scream from a
shack near by, where a woman kept a
small store. principally of fruits. but
with the inevitable bottle of vino tc
be had. Texas was the first man OF
the guard to get there and let go his
Krag- -Jorgensen several times into the
night at what he said was a flying fig
nre of man. The frightened woman
said she had been awakened by the
swaying of the matched roof of her
shack. as if some heavy body were up
there tearing it apart. Then she heard
some one drop softly to the floor Of her
storeroom and screamed. She saw a
man go back through the roof as nim-
bly, as monkey, and a bottle of vino
was gone. She looked fearfully at
Texas as she told this, and was more
scared still when he good naturedly
told her he would keep a sharp eye on
her place thereafter. The woman's
single garment was torn from neck to
waist. but it was not known until
afterward that the fellow had choked
her. When asked if a soldier or native
had attacked her. she tremblingly said,
with strange look at Texas. that it
was native. She disappeared the next
day, abandoning her store and all its
contents.
In the same company with Texas was
chunky little sergeant who kept a
quiet eye on the big Westerner after
that. They had been friends. and
nothing was thought of it when the
sergeant removed his quarters to the
same shack occupied by Texas and his
comrades. The big fellow resented the
closer scrutiny of the sergeant and
ahey quarreled, with the Texan doing
all of the quarreling. This was
against all discipline. but the sergeant
interceded for his former friend and