Sistersville daily oil review. [volume] (Sistersville, W. Va.) 1902-1905, 1903-06-30
ABSINTH'S SPREAD.
GREEN EYED FAIRY SLOWLY SEcuR-
ING A FOoTHoLD IN AMERICA.

Some Cafes In Various Cities Now
Sell No Other LiquOr-Terrible Eff
fects of the Drink Ably Described
by French Physicians.
Absinth, "the fairy with the green
ewes" as they call it in France, is
turning those green eyes more and
more on the United States, and Amer
leans are more and more falling vic
tins to their hypnotic influence. Sixty
wears ago absinth was practically I'M
known in France. During the Algerian
war QS44-40 the soldiers were advised
to mix absinth with their wine as
febrifuge. On their return they brought
with them the habit of drinking it,
which is now so widely and so disas-
trously disseminated in France and
which croakers predict will be in an
other twenty-five years as widely and
disastrously disseminated in America.
Regarding the effects of absinth, no
two describe them in the same way.
Deyotees and doctors differ radically.
To be sure, the one class speaks merely
of its temporary effect, the other of its
ultimate and permanent effect. One
Frenchman, waxing enthusiastic, has
exclaimed: "For the hearts wide
wounds, which bleed internally; for
the grief Of q lost love, which never
can be regained; for the sting OF re-
morse and the gnawing prosecutions OF
| conscience-for all these I can find a
| remedy. For the poison Of memory
can provide an antidote, blessed
balm that soothes the wronged spirit
into total forgetfulness Of its injury
and opens before the mind fresh and
wonderful field of vision where are
found glories that the world knows
nothing of and for the enjoyment of
which q man might we'll be content to
starve and suffer and sacrifice every
thing, even love- 1t is the most mar
yelous cordial in all the world. Drink
| and you will find your sorrows trans
muted, yourself transformed being.
A mere ordinary American wholacks
the French enthusiasm and theFrench
poetry says: Its the dopiest' drink l
know Of. You simply don't care wheth-
| er school keeps or not; you are sub
| timely Indifferent to the sorrows and
joys of this mortal life; you simply
sit and let the world drift by" An
other Frenchman says, 1T IS my IA
yorite remedy against the kicks Of for
tune-a benevolent green fairy, at
single wave of whose wand sorrow
fees" And another prosaic American
says, "The best thing to keep man in
good humor."
What has particularly aroused good
temperance folk, says the Brooklyn
Eagle, is the opening in New Orleans
and Washington and even in staid
Philadelphia and Puritan Boston Of
cafes Of the true Partisan type, in
which there is no liquor sold but alb
smith.
French physicians, who have proba-
bly, studied the effects Of absinth more
| eXhaustively than any other, say that
| these effects differ materially on the
| steady tippler and on the periodic eX-
cessive drinker. The man who goes or
on frequent sprees has at first the feel
ing Of eXaltation common to all i'll
toyication. The increasing dose ncces-
sary to produce this state deran%cS the
digestion and, while destroying the APP
petite, induces an inappeaSable thirst.
1t produces giddineSS. tingling in the
| ears and Authorizations Of sight and
| hearing, constant mental oppression
and anxiety, loss of brain power and
eventually idiocy. Steady tipplcrS
symptoms begin with muscular CULVER
ing and decrease Of physical strength.
| Soon the hair begins to fall out, and
the face assumes a melancholy aspect
| and becomes cmaciated, sallOw and
wrinkled. Lesion Of the brain follows,
and the victim is haunted by horrible
dreams and decisions. Finally a grad
ual paralysis lands him in the grave.
1t is only fair to add that the afore-
said French physicians, who are natu-
| rally experts in the toXicology of alb
| smith, attribute most of its evil eff
fects 10 authorizations. They deny that
either wormwood or any Of the essen
tia! oils used in pure absinth would
produce any such effects; that it is to
the strong spirit used and to such adul-
terations as salts Of copper that the
deadly power of the liquor must he at
| tributed. But none Of them dreams Of
denying that absinth produces proper
| +nl1 70 nffnatS fhnn brandy
or any other strong spirits. So that on
the whole, it would seem the part Of
discretion for Americans to avoid the
fairy with the green eyes, for the light
thereof is dangerous.