The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-01-23

and refreshing power of the infusion.
 Mate can be drunk hot or cold, it can be taken with cream and sugar, like tea or coffee, and it can be used straight which seems by far the best way of drinking it. Plain mate is quite bitter, and, like beer, it is an acquired taste. Tie first sip gives a distinctly bitter taste and the drinker sets down his glass with a Wry face. Presently, as soon as the bitter effee. wears of, the imbiber has a pleasant recollection of the sensation. By this time the power. full stimulating property of the drink has begun to work and the thinker feels like taking another sip. Mate makes the user of 1t feel good" makes him look with a brighter eye on the dark side of life, makes him forget his troubles for the moment, and, best of all, unlike beer, it makes him feel like working or doing something with his brain or his hands instead of loafing or gossiping.
 Chemists who have carefully analysed mate say that it is perfectly harmless. It has only the smallest percentage of caffeine and volatile oils. and it never leaves a bad effect after. Even when the thinker has discordered stomach or bad nerves the consumption of mate is not followed by unpleasant feelings.
 When the mate habit is acquired the drinker is apt to indulge himself free ly, even when there is no need of stimu- lation. Like the alcohol thinker, he takes the beverage for it's effect'' Sometimes he gets to be regular mate drunkard. but, wonderful to say, this beneficent drug has no sting, it's only effect being that of making the drunk ard' a busy, industrious and hopeful man, who gets more out of his life for himself and his fellows than the ordi- nary man who depends on his own body for stimulation.
 In a word. mate cannot be abused any more than water, and there are comparatively few who take it in large quantities for the mere sake of the stimulation. It can be drunk, in weak infusion, at meals. just like beer, wine, tea or coffee, and the taste is sure to be even more pleasant than that of any of these beverages.
 The effect of mate has been tried with the most happy results in London hospi- tals. Physicians and nurses who have used 1t say it has solved the problem of how to make long continued watching and working easy and light. Nurses and physicians in these hospitals aver that a bottle of the straight mate converts their monotonous, although active, duties into positive pleasure. Sleepiness is banished, and interest in common humdrum work is aroused. Abstinence from mate for short time is followed by normal appetite for food and sleep, and the worker can go to bed looking forward to a bright and cheerful morrow.
 But perhaps the most saving quality that mate has is It's cheapness. The ilex grows in exubura11t quantity in South America, and many species of it grow in the United States, but it remains to be seen whether good beverage can be got out of the domestic plant. Its great cheapness makes iteeasfiy purchasahle by the laboring man and by the hordes of workers in great cities who daily patronize saloons at the monday hour.
 Bishop Fallows few years ago intro duced into Chicago the British substi- ute for beer, which was sold in tenn perance saloon in Washington street, but the experiment was a failure be- cause the beer, while tasting like com-. mon beer, had no stimulating power and left the drinker of it quite as pessi- mistic as he was before he tossed off his foaming glass. It is the stimulation the beer thinker is after and not the taste. But mate has both taste and stimula- ton, and when once drunk 1t sets up the habit and thus cuts the ground from under the feet of the beer or whisky habit.
 It also reduces the desire for tea and coffee, either of which, according to medical men, is highly detrimental to health, even more so than temperate drinking of alcohol. Mate also reduces the desire for tobacco, because of it's highly stimulative action. Men use to- bacco for it's stimulating and not it's narcotic effect. This is particularly true Of brain workers. But while tobacco stimulates the brain and the intellect and makes them both quick and clear mate has also this effect with no reac- ton on the lleart-Chicago Tribune.
 --------------------