The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-10-04
THE DECLINE OF DRINKING.
Less and Less Intemperance Among
Men and Women.
New York Sun.

New York Sun.
1t rarely happens that the periodical
announcement that intemperance is in
creasing among women comes from a
playwright. That is the chief novelty
about the recent utterances of Bronson
Howard.
AS has been said many times, anybody
who comes into contact with society women
of the day knows that indulgence in liquor
has not increased among them, but de-
clined. They have learned that their
health and beauty are to be kept only
through sanitary living.
Indulgence in liquor is one of the first
things that doctors nowadays prohibit.
Indeed, most physicians of the younger
school are so rabid and uncompromising
on that point that the effect Of their advice
is sometimes lost on patients.
81 can always tell at a glance" said one
of the physicians who have many New
York women of social Importance under
their care, "the man or the woman who
takes too much alcohol. 1t produces fat
in nine cases out of ten, and fat Of a kind
that is Immediately recognizable. Bloat
is the vulgar name for 1t, and that de-
scribes it accurately enough.
ANY woman who drinks to excess is
going to show the first effects in that way.
And the stout woman is now entirely out
of the mode.
Athletics are so common to the younger
generation of women that they have the
advantage in retaining their figure over
those who cannot indulge in these sports.
So the others struggle by prudence in
eating and drinking to keep as attractive
in figure as their friends.
MASSAGE
not do this, nor will exercise by itself keep
them down. They must give up fattening
bread, sweets and starches are equal to
abstaining from liquor. Cocktails, even
though they be rather dry, are the most
fattening drink woman can take, and
next to that comes sweet champagne.
Formerly women, and for that matter
men, never knew what caused their
troubles until after it was too late. But
in recent years there has been such a
spread of publicity on this subject that
the effects of alcohol are now well under
stood.
people indulge i'm too much drink, and
nowadays they know 1t. Formerly they
did not.
1.-The general decrease in drinking during
the past few years has had its effect chiefly
on the women, of the kind that Mr.. How
ard spoke of because they, more than any
others. are compelled to guard against the
results that liquor causes"
The testimony Of one expert at the head
of an institute for the treatment of the
liquor habit, that the number of his women
patients had increased during recent years,
has no bearing on the habits of women of
fashion. AS a matter of fact, there have
been, during the past ten years, only three
cases in which women that could rightly
be placed among New Yorks smart set
have been criticised for drinking too much,
whether justly or unjustly IL was not in
every case possible to tell.
One of them went to regular hospital
for that kind of treatment, and she re-
manned there the time necessary for cure
1t was supposed she was taking one. In
former years there more talk of this
kind heard about women well known in
society, but for at least a decade only three
names have been mentioned in city gossip.
THE increase in drinking, said the
head of the institute visited by the Sun
reporter, seems to be the result in a meas
ure of our prosperity and the resulting
growth of the drinking on all sides. Peo-
pie go to expensive restaurants now and
order wine-usually champagne-who would
not have thought Of drinking such a thing
a decade ago. They have more money now
and spend some of it in that way.
Again, women find that they can order
drinks in public without causing criticism.
1t was an unusual thing ten years ago to
see two women lunching together order a
cocktail. Now they think nothing of ii,
nor does anybody who sees them.
Unlike the women of the set Mr.. How
ard criticised. the women have not al
ways been familiar with the effects of wine
and drinking in general They much