Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-22
FRANCES GREEN DEVIL
Absinthe is Now on Trial for Its
....~ Life. A.
WHAT THE DRINK REALLY IS
Group Formed in Chamber of Deputies
to Fight It.
GREEN HOUR ON BOULEVARD
Why the Worst Alcoholized People of
the World is the Least Drunken
Effects of the Liquor.
GREEN HOUR ON BOULEVARD
Special Correspondence of The Star.

PARIS, December IL 1906
Two Englishmen in Paris painted the
town red and spent 80 600; smashed a cab
and bought it outright; kissed every woman
they met-and squared every kiss with
gold; and when found on a bench in the
Place Blanche next morning they said they
had enjoyed the time of their lives.
All Paris laughed and marveled at the
Anglo-Saxon adventure-tll fierce old
revoluton.st and relic OF the Commune
rose and told them from the tribune of the
chamber of deputies:
You are worse off than those English
| tourists. They had time and went home
to recuperate on tea. You do not go on
sprees, yet you are always taking your
aperitif or little glass of doctored and per-
fumed spirits. This land is being ruined
by absnthes and vermouths.'
Then strange thing happened. To back
up valiant, the communard, there
Christian priest. the Able Lemire, sen: up
| to parliament by workingmen of factory
| towns.
The French are the least drunken people
of Europe" he said. Yet, at the same
! time, we are the worst alcoholized people
of the world. The cause is known-liquors
doctored with essential oils. An interpar
| liamentary group has been already formed
against them. 1t will be glad to receive re-
| cruits.
| At this there rose and joined hands with
| the priest the athestic Viviani, collectivis.
socialist minister of labor in the present
| cabinet. Next came Ribot and Aynard two
| great leaders of the conservative opposi-
| ton In the senate the group is led by
Delpech, the Freemason chief, by MezereS
| the conservative and Bienvenu- Martin, late
| radical minister of justice. The first fruit
| of it's work is that the commission of the
| budget has increased the tax on absinthes.
| absinthoides, bitters and amers by n 000OO0
| francs, but its final object Is the wiplng
out of the devil of the French.
What Absinthe Is
Absinthe! The word ia from the Greek
"apsinthion' which means impossible to
drink 1t is a green plant that. when
dried and placed in closets, kills all in
sects.
In old-fashioneu pharmacy its tea was
stomachc. ant-ac.d, anti-putrid, febrifuge
and vermifuge. and stimulant- Some sixty
years ago, when France was at her
quest of Algers. its alcoholic preparation
obtained vogue in army circles against
fever and as a refresher in hot climates.
1t was green. When water was poured
into it-as ever must belt turned mysti
cally opaIescent, throwing jewel glints in
the sunlight, and as the war-stained
French hero slipped it the jewel glia-s
danced into his tired soul.
They carried sunbeams with them, cour
age, hope enthusiasm. 1t was all delicate
ly new and strange. Force came with the
new beverage that did not taste particu-
larly alcoholic: the tired back would
straighten up and the mind, losing none of
its calm judgment found bright inspra-
tons.
So the green drink came to Paris, and
decades passed before special incon
veniences were attributed to it. The earliest
experiments of Magnan, Laborde, Mairet,
Cadeac and Meunier do not date back even
forty years. and it was the essence of alb
sinthe pure that Magnan administered to
his dogs
Tor1u
The dog experiments proved absinthe es-
sence to be reliable convulsive poison.
Shortly after. Lancereaux began expert
menting with it on man. The absinthe
fiend of early days was something of
curiosity and certainly a great exception.
He distinguished himself from the vulgar
alcoholic by convulsive crises, called cpl
leptiform.
You see, the Green Devil had not at
tanned his full growth from modern chem
istry. AS years went on. his virulence
increased as he became more complicated;
until the Repertoire General de Pharmacie
was at last oblige to change its old dein-
ton to an explana ticn:
"Absinthe.-The drink vulgarly called
absinthe, universally consumed in
France today, is no longer made exclusive
ly from the absinthe which should form its
base 1t is an alcooiat colored with spin
ach, parsley, hyssop, tncture of curcuma,
indigo, etc. and containing in dissolution
enough of the essence Of anise and badiane
to give it the quality OF opalescent whiten-
ing when water is added.
What, then. of the Green Devil? Have
no fear for him. he was still there, round
ed out and filled up with seven other
devils each worse than the other To the
percentage of the absinthe-essence that re-
manned, the experiments of Cadeac and
Meunier disclosed that there had been add
ed OILS Of fennel. hyssop, anise. badiane;
balm-mint (melisse), angelica, origin and
mint-all green or enish-goiden.
Three-absnthe, fennel and hyssop-
are convulsivants. The six others are
stupefiants. producing tendency to torpor.
loss Of memory. loss of will, stupidity.
Inspiration and Ruin.
There are French genuses who turned to
the green drink for inspiration. Some
found inspiration. Some found inspiration
and ruin. Some found ruin only. OF the
middle category Alfred de Musset and
Georges Sand have been the architypes in
bourgeois tradition, but his old housekeeper
Adele Colot. who still lives. affirms that
Alfred stuck to champagne, like a gentle
man; while 1 myself had 1t last summer
from the now aged son of her faithful
farmer and factotum that the Lady of No
hant died of cigarettes
In coming years will there be just
faithful evidence that Paul Verlane did
not die in Paris hospital ,S a an "a absint NTH.
is still close to US. They went in power
fully for this opalescent inspiration. Young
men twelve or fifteen years ago, where are
they now? The artist Ricardo Flores has
drawn one of them in these late days. 1t
is his Portrait of a Friend at Clarendon
Asylum
All Paris shuddered at the awful portrait
which Is being used for anti-absnthe
propaganda at the present moment. The
man was forgotten. Yet few years ago,
after Verlaine he was the brightest of a
galaxy. of poets. already distinguished,
whose enrichment of French verse was to
give them fame other than the acknow
edgment of tendency which is vaguely
theirs today. Today he raves intermittent
ly between periods of anxiety.
1 knew another such, with a face like a
Christ. He wanders, now, in park behind
high walls. ever fearing to offend. pursued
by a. mild mania of persecut on. He spends
his time forgiving folks around him-eXcept
when he is begging some ones pardoni
Green Hour on the Boulevard.
You would think that the French to
whom such examples come home in their
families or their friendships would not need
to be exhorted to steer clear Of the green
sea; yet when, since the time of the i'm
press onable Spartans with their drunken
Helots did the awful example prove effec-
tive?