Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-04-06
THE INsIDIoUs SAKI|.

"a story / read In The Star not long
ago, about a man who drank a lot of sak
and then went up to visit a volcano. had
peculiar interest for me-" observed a Wash
ington club man, whose travels are extern
sive. Il fought shy of sah for more than
month after my first visit to Japan When
I did finally tangle UP with the stun l GER
tainly wasn't aware of 1t till afterward. L
was led up to the saki trough and made to
drink It by device. a trick. In Toxic l
met a man I had gone to school with. He
was in business out there. He took me
around good bit in his assortment of
single, tandem and double 'rickshaws, and
we had pretty warm time together. At
such times as we felt ourselves called upon
to renew our spiritual strength, We dropped
into the British or the American club and
ploy for reviying purposes back this way.
My friend began to talk saki to me the DAY
after l met him. though 1 baked at the
proposition. but he kept right at me-
% 'Sa-ki's the real stuff when you get used
to It,. said he Light. enlivening. thirst
Quenching. and all that. you know, and
positively no head or remorse or hot cop
pers II you do happen to take leetle mite
when you get the hang Of it. l really
haven't gone in for very much OF anything
else since I came out here. Come ahead
and give 1t a try, anyhow
perimenting on this trip. 1 got through
with all that experimentation business
when I was in my twenties, and wanted
to be bad and wicked and ornery and dis
sipated- Anyhow. I've heard some esh re re,
country long enough to get used to 1t even
II I wanted to. The Kentucky product
is good enough for me, or wouldn't have
brought cargo of 1t along with me purely
for medicinal purposes. Sorry. but I'll have
to ask you to cut the rice mash so Tar as
/ am concerned.
well. of course. he guyed me about my
finicalness and threw it up to me that
was not wont In the old days to be such
a stickler for the conventional order OF
things in the way of drinkables, but
stood pat and he saw that he couidn get
me involved with saki by fair means. so
when he took me to dinner with him TO
the Merchants Club he ordered couple
of bottles of native Japanese wine.
Hello, said 1, are they making wines
out here too, as well as dollar American
clocks, indigestion pills, and
BULLY article OF wine he said. 'Stili
tart stuff, a good deal like Rhine wine. but
more harmless even. Jaos that can aHor4
it drink it altogether instead Of water l
take a couple of bottles of 1t with my
luncheon every day.
We'll. 1 didn't suspect any cussedness,
and so I drank off a tumbler of the stun:
putting on my wise critical expression OF
countenance as | did so. 1t tasted pretty
sood-like Rhine wine. as my friend said
sourish. like Sauterne. and not particularly
clear in color.
mot so bad for newly Europeanized
country said L, drinking off another good
sized glass of it. 1t was a pretty warnf
day. and 1 had about finished a third glass
of it by the time We got to the roast Then.
all of sudden. 1 was drunk-drunker
the drunkest fiddler that was ever packed
off to bed after a country dance My friend
regar ded me amusedly from his side Of the
table. and when I began to wabble in my
chair he broke into a guffaw. Drunk as l
was, ! began to see through the thing.
- Say. you. what's the meaning Of all
this?' I asked. II this stuf's grape juice.
then there's something wrong with me, and
it'll be for my family. If it's not the juice
of the grape. but that internal saki you've
been trying to wheed!e me into drinking,
then you're just much of a mischievous
whelp as YOU used to be at school,
That Is to say, my friend told me that
said all this, for l didn't remember any
thing at all after that lucid interval of an
instant when 1t dawned upon ME that
first time In decade. and drunk upon
japanese rice rum at that.
Il was dreaming that 1 was being slowly
cut into ribbons with stone knives by men,
bers of Montezumas body guard, and that
couple of EN- were trying to make my
head fit into a Roman tear jar. when ]
woke up with whoop. 1 was in a room
upstairs in the Merchants Club and my
with an innocent eye. I wouldn't be able
to properly describe that head in a thou
sand years 1t was high noon, and had
been in that bed for just seventeen hours.
But what a head! 1t felt like steamer
coal bunker with about twenty heavy
programmed stokers heaving Jumps of coal at
the side of it. T called that friend of mine
all of the names that I could lay my,
reason that didn't kill him was that L
was too weak to get out Of bed. When L
got through Safeguarding him | ordered
him to send me, instantly. about a pint of
the red liquor of Kentucky.
but 1t won't do, rye. you know. nor any
other kind Of occidental stuff. for saki
head. Queer think about saki. After you've
just started in on 1t. and have taken a
leetle mite too much. the only thing thatll
seryeSwhen you wake up Is a couple more
big swallows OF saki 1t gives you the
proper tone and gets you on your feet in
just about two minutes. The hair OF any
other kind Of dog only lays you out sitter
after your first whirl with saki. Waitll
"'What. try more saki;' howled at him.
Not for the whole COMPOUNDED empire Of
Japan would l even smell at an empty
saki bottle. I'm going to tell your people
back home, when 1 return. what a cutthroat
you are
well, he began to talk q bit seriously
not fooling, and while he was talking a Jap
waiter brought in tumble of saki on a
tray. There was some cracked ice on it.
and 1t looked wet and cool. and SO / gulped
1t down. That was the most wonderful drink
1 ever took In my life. Inside Of two
minutes I was right as a whistle, not
the first symptom Of drink left, and as
cool and comfortable as a man needs to be.
l got up and dressed, and by the time was
dressed 1 was hungrier than wolf. and l
ate as big breakfast a man does when
he gets over his first dose of seasickness.
"All the same. 1 didn't drink any more
saki In Japan or anywhere else. The stuff
is too knky. 1t tastes like a light wine,
whereas it's nothing more or less than a
villainous. high-proof liquor. and the man
who tossed a quart or so of the stuff into
him to allay thirst, under the impression
that that's what it's made for. Is in for an
experience that wouldn't go through again
for a basket Of KohinoorS."
Sixteen Years Of Ibsen.
From the Pail Mall Gazette.
Col ha vile In