The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-09-26
About Keeping Sober.

To the Editor of The Journal.
My attention has been directed to your
recent editorial, under the above cap
ton, wherein you refer to the theory
that by the process of alcoholic selection
the drinking families die out and a
sober race is left. Relative to this you
say:
This theory, however, appears to fail
to take into consideration the difference
between wines and liquors. 1t is pointed
out that France drank wines for CEN
turtles, and was one of the most sober
races. But the vines failed, liquors
were introduced and in two genera lions
France became one of the most drunken
nations
After some investigation the writer
has formed the opinion that a distinction
should be made between drunkenness
and alcoholism; also that the latter vice
is not a new national disease of France.
Your editorial broadly suggests by in
ference that the drinking of wine is
harmless. which I do not think war
Eranted y. 49,. -. =
+ DR.. Max Nordau of Paris, we'll
known medical man, author, and news
paper. correspondent, in referring to the
alcoholism of France, says: "This is a
point upon which it is somewhat diff
cult to enlighten the world, because we
! have to contend with deep-rooted preiu-
tdices. We see, it is true more drunk
ards in London than in Paris but that
for several reasons. The English labor
er drinks, during the week, either not at
all or very moderately; but on Saturday,
after having pocketed his weeks earn
ings, he INDUCES in a dissolute orgy, and
drinks till he lies unconscious in the
gutter. In Paris the people rarely drink
To t1o o.
they drink uninterruptedly, they poison
themselves gradually; they undermine
their health slowly but steadily, aid if
We would see the consequences of this
fatal habit, we must by no means look
| for them in the gutter it is in the sick
chamber of the citizens and in the beds
of the hospitals for the poor that they
reveal themselves
ut is scarcely possible to form. out
side of France, an adequate idea of the
extent to which liquors are used there
Here everybody drinks, without distinc.
ton Of age, sex or station; even babies
in the cradle are given wine. This
seems monstrous to us.* I have become
! acquainted in the Paris hospitals il
which 1 spend a large part of my time
with several thousands Of worl1ingmen
and questioned them about their habits
These people have quite wonderful idea:
about the harm resulting from spirituou
drinks. I have often found that a work
ingman in the hospital who was un
doubtedly suffering from acute alcohol
ism, made, upon my urgent question
whether he was drinker. the confiden
answer: II never take spirits II
the course of close investigation i
: transpired that the patient had ever,
day for years been drinking from three t
]
I never succeeded in making him under
stand that red wine also was an alec
holic drink. - -, -.
The workingman knows that absinthe
cognac and white wine must be take
cautiously, but he lives and dies wit
the mistaken belief that red wine is, i
any quantity, a beverage as harmless a
it is strengthening"
Nordau affirms the -truthfulness of til
picture drawn by lola in "L'Assom
mor," in which the famous novels
leaves the luxurious carpets Of the salon
over which he had brought his reader
in previous novels, and suddenly drag
gng them off, and ripping up the flool
revealed the abyss yawning under tn
glittering surface Of metropolitan life
. The heroine of the novel, who is origin
ally of good character, ends in miser,
II struggling with the demon of alcohol t
whom she falls a victim.
|. In "Revue Positiviste,'" published b
Littre, will be found study on the alec
g holism of France, in which is laid bar
8 the same open wound to which lola wa
e the first writer of merit to call attention
II Nordau says: If this plague be nj
8 stayed, the French nation will 60
= ruin, morally and physically. lola
e 'LAssommoir' is a Meme TeAel, Upaal
J, sin written in fiery letters, and by
t powerful hand. on the wall of the palac
/ Of jovial tippler. If the fumes have M
already too thickly muddled his brazil
:. the glutton will, after this warning, thro
the goblet under the table and make a
|. end to the feast.
II John c.. Bennett.
(, Minneapolis, Sept. %. 1906. s.
: : *Dr. Nordau is Hungarian.