The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-09-02


 his regular spree when his time came around and died.
 "In my own practice had another | case of @ similar sort This man was the black sheep of an old Washington Square family, who when cast off by his people on account of his dissipated habits, supported himself by giving pi- ano lessons.
 This mans tipple was peach bran dy, for which he had passion amounting to a mania. One night while sitting intoxicated in the back room of a Fourth avenue saloon he quarrelled with young fellow. The young chap drew knife, and the mu- sic teacher struck out at him blindly, catching him on the point of the jaw with his right fist.
 ''The young fellow went to the floor and his head struck the edge of an iron spittoon His skull was fractured and he died in hospital the next day.
 'The music teacher was tried for the thing, but there were plenty of witnesses that he'd only acted in de- fense of his life and he was let off. He never drank a drop of his favorite peach brandy or of anything else when he left the Tombs Instead of that he devised the same scheme of self-tor- ture as the upholsterer,
 He'd place bottle of the fragrant peach brandy-than which no liquor made has a more perfect bouquet-on the piano in his lodgings, and then, with the bottle uncorked and the fruity aroma filling the room, he'd play | for hours in sort of trance. That one, too, I caught in the act of thus racking himself one evening when, at- tracted by his music, I dropped in at his lodgings.
 "The fine fragrance of the peach brandy so filled the room aid was so overwhelming in it's appeal to even a normal man that I hankered for some drinks out of the bottle myself. This man, too, I warned against his prac- tice of maltreating his nervous organ ization in that way, but his only re- ply was that he was trying to atone by that sort of thing for having per- mitted himself to take human life.
 "One night while playing at the pi- ano, with the bottle of peach brandy sending it's perfume all over the place, the black sheep music teacher sudden ly ceased playing, grabbed the bottle, knocked the neck off it against the side of the piano. poured the liquor Tout on the floor, and then with the jagged edges of the bottle cut his throat There is little doubt that the old mania for the drink had seized him and that he had killed himself rather than surrender to it.
 This curious desire on the part of some men of fundamentally strong character to triumph over the drink after they've quit it suddenly, general ly after some serious catastrophe in their lives, is, I think, modern and certainly rather a widespread manlfes- tation. I have come upon many odd instances of it.
 | T know, for example a prosperous stock broker who never lets day go ! by without torturing himself with the sight of creaming bubbling champagne, and yet he never takes so much as a taste of it. He will walk into a res- | taurant alone, for luncheon say, and l with his luncheon will order quart bottle of the best champagne.
 "The waiter pours him a glassful of it, always in a glass with hollow stem, the better to get the bottom to | top bubblihg effect, and the broker sits and watches the wine hissing and creaming in the glass while he par takes of his food, but never motion does he make toward drinking a drop of it.
 "When the first glass fattens he has | the waiter dump the wine out. Then the waiter pours another glass, and shoot it's little beads into the air and whisper around the edges of the glass, and this sort of thing is repeated un- til the whole quart is used up and the brokers luncheon is finished.
 'fTIe goes through the same perform ance with his quart of champagne at his hotel dinner uptown, and when he goes to a banquet he has his glass in readiness for all the champagne that is served around.
 ''The story behind this Is that this broker once got the jolt of his life all on account of champagne, and so he has been engaged ever since-and il has been twelve years-in giving champagne and all other intoxicating drnka5les what he imagines to be the quiet ghost.
 "A dozen years ago he had an op' ton on some immensely valuable zinc mines and he had deal all arrang. ed whereby he stood to make profit of something like two millions of dol lars. On the very day before tht transaction was to be completed ht went on a big champagne toot, and while in bad shape he took singing actress of that day to dine with hin at the same fashionable restaurant where his wife and daughters anG some of their friends were having din ner.
 When his wife saw him with tht actress there was row, a consider able kickup, in fact. That broke III the zinc deal.
 "The broker was thus his two mil lions to the bad Not only that, bu his wife, with some previous data tt go upon, immediately entered sui for divorce against him, and she go the divorce out of hand.
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