Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-10-22
NETWORK S|.;SWEAR-OFF
al
III v
The Notaries Public p Are Hav-
ing Flush + i: Times
&c. -.
FORSWEARING DRINKS
-[
CHEMISTS REVELATIONS CREATE
FURoRE AMONG DRINKERS.
The Anti Treating Association Has Re-
ceived an Impetus-Growth of
the Anti-Touch Society.
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.
NEW YORK, October 81, 1904.
About two and a half months in advance
of the usual date-i.e., the initial day Of the
new year-New York has been INDUCING,
during the past ten days or so, in vast
and comprehensive swear-off
The notaries public are having a flush
time of it. Priests and ministers. while de-
irving no profit from the great movement.
are putting in the busiest days and nights
Of their lives. swearing off the scared ones.
1t is suggested that the men of the cloth
are getting just bit the worst of the ex-
listing situation Conventionality, the sense
Of delicacy, tradition and what not, pre-
vent them from charging fee for drawing
up swear-off papers for the shaky ones
who apply to them. 1t is being asked why
this should be. Why should busy clergy
man, with so many demands upon his
time and patience, be debarred from charg-
ing the two bits exacted by the notary pub
lie for swearing man off? The swear-of
fixed up and duly signed, sealed and de-
livered by the clergyman is justly regarded
as quite as binding, competent and effectual
as the document of the same character
hastily scrubbed and stamped by the no
tary and yet the notary demands and re-
ceives a quarter from every frightened In
dividual who, by book, bell and candle, FOR
swears the f1agon for the remainder of his
| life and the life to come. There is 1nequlty
here that should be remedied before this
embracing and, it may be- evanid swear
off movement has run Its course.
The clergymen whose rectories and sacrls-
ties are being beSieged by the tremulouS
swearers-off should of right establish ana
maintain a swear-off fee, if only to devote
the aggregate proceeds to the needs OF
their parishes.
| This mighty swear-off movement, partici-
pated in as it is by all of the elements
of this mercurial and easily-stampeded pop
ulation is not the outcome of any tenn
perance preaching. 1t is a sort of yolun-
tary automatic self-acting affair, in no
wise signifying penitence for their a!cononc
sins on the part of the swearers-oH. II Is
merely that they have been mace aware
that there is a fly in their ointment; that,
| in brief to abandon symbolism, there Is
lurking death in New York booze.
Death in the Booze.
The first alarm, when fifteen men died
from their Ibations of wood alcohol whisky
puryeyed at a 10th avenue rumorium, only
iolted the midriffs of such coarse and care
less persons as purchased their wet dam
nation at 5 cents the throw The dead
ones were mostly longshoremen, truckmen
and the like, and their cashing in from the
effects of the half-dime bowls deferred not
the tanks of higher degree who expend 10
and 10 and even 20 cents over ornate bars
for their soothing syrup. The well-clad ana
orderly soaks of New York have of course
been dimly aware of the universally OF the
New York barrel houseta all their lives
those cheerful cellars of the ragged rols-
terers where, as, the .haring placards an
nounce "a large. fine. mellow glass of Ken
lucky bourbon is purchasable at from 3 TO
3 cents. ="
The word glass" however, in these an
t. - nix
noble Kentucky bourbon is dispensed at the
barrel houses from dippers. The barkeep
hands you out a brimming dipperful Tor
your half dime, at the same time passing
you over much-used whisk-broom. II
YOU are an habitue of the barrel house you
of course understand the use of the whisk-
broom You carry your dipper of noble
bourbon over to a Cark corner of the cellar,
brush away the sawdust from the floor in
your corner insert the drink into your sys-
tenn and then have your fit, peaceful-like
and comfortable.
The upper-class rum slave, as stated, of
course knew all about this sort of thing.
and he had heard, too, that the product
dispensed at the barrel house was mostly
manufactured every morning by the barrel
house proprietor, the residue remaining I'M
sold at closeup time being thrown away
He had heard that the, ingredients most
frequently employed in the connection of
these amiable fluids were alcohol. aniline
dye, prune juice and just enough sweet
chewing tobacco to give the barrel tone
and tang. At the thought of all of which
the rumiferous ones of better degree duly
shuddered and wondered how the poor dew
lis who absorbed such stuff into their
frames could go on living.
Investigation of Whisky.
But the uproar caused by the deaths of
the wood alcohol whisky imbibers led to
an investigation by chemists of note of
the component elements entering into the
foo Of 4 !, o,.l Il
over the so-called decent" bars of New
York. Their reports were most astound-
ing, not to say terrifying, to the steady
patrons of the dime and the dime and a
half whisky mills.
Even the high falutin whisky served at
90 cents the measure did not escape the
strong censure of some of the chemists.
The chemist persons declared that most
of the whisky dished out to New Workers
at the good bars as well as at the
Joints" was made out of or fortified or
blended with any old thing.
The list of scientifically named and al
together horrifying oils they found in
nearly all Of the samples of liquor they
analysed was in itself sufficient to drive
the most sodden and confirmed drunkards
to the water wagon at dead lope. But
when the chemists, becoming joyously
expansive presented a list of the diseases
liable to be caused by even the moderate
use of these horrific juices-Such insig-
nificant little ailments as palsy, paralysis,
locomotor ataxia, St Vitus' dance, pare
Sis neurasthenia, angina pectoris, and so
on-the stampede of the DRINKS of the
better degrees toward the aqua vehicle
became one of the moving manifestations
of the hour.
Reluctantly, but perforce. they were
compelled to twist around that alluring
but deceiving old saw, "There's no such
thing as bad whisky" to There's no such
thing In New York as good whisky" and,
experiencing imaginary qualms proceed
ing from their Authorizations of fear
they began to move upon the swear-off
establishments at a nervous jog. The
solemn animadversfons of DR.. Wiley of
Washington upon the character of the
ever-so-popular Scotch whisky were
picked up and dealt upon at length, so
that even the battalion of drinkers of the
queer Notwithstanding stuff Joined the
camp of the Swearers-off
There isn't, of course, any way of esti- |
mating just how many thousands of total |
abstinence pledges have been taken here
since the movement of fear got well
under way, but the red is gradually go
ing out OF the faces of an astonishing |
number of quite well-known New York |
FOUNDERS. They walk the prosaic world of |