The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1910-03-09
BITTER WAR ON INTEMPERANCE
SOLDIERS FIGHTING THIS CURSE
GREATLY CHEERED.
"Just a Little Too Much Champagne"

"Just a Little Too Much Champagne"
A w~ell-dressed, well-educated young
woman was a%rraigned in a police
court yesterday. She had been ar
rested by a policeman the night be-
fore. She was alone on the street,
smiling foolishly and talking foolish
ly to herself.
The policeman guessed that she
was drunk. and guessed right, so he
took her to the station, despite her
protests that she was respectable, Of
a good family, and ought not to have
to submit to the indignity Of arrest.
When the girl was arraigned,
friends. who were also friends of the
magistrate, spoke in her defense.
They said she had been attending a
dinner party, had drunk a little too
much champagne, and had somehow
wandered out on the street and lost
her way.
A delightful memory this police
court experience will be to the wo-
man in after years! When sine is
married and has children of her own,
how pleasant it will be to recall that
once upon a time she was arrested IN
the street, and for drunkenness!
1t is likely that that little chapter
of her life will be kept carefully from
her children. and from her husband.
To-day the girl would be willing to
sacrifice all the dinner parties she
has attended or hopes to attend If she
could blot out that memory. But
such memories do not blot out. 1t
will remain with her to her grave.
and it will, it is to be hoped, make
her pretty careful about the way she
brings up her daughter, if she has
any.
Cocktail drinking and champagne
drinking, whether at parties or else
where. are very dangerous pursuits
for women.
Men are rapidly getting over the
idea that it is either manly or funny
to get drunk and behave like idiots.
But, disgusting as is a drunken
man. q drunken woman is ten times
more disgusting.
No man who has q mother likes to
think of any woman being drunk.
No man. If he Is human. can look
without pity on the spectacle of a
woman whose reason has been stolen
away by alcohol. and who. as did the
poor creature the policeman. found
on the street. goes about smiling and
talking to herself like the inmate Of
an insane asylum.
Let no one ever think that 1t is
Smart" or up-to-date for women to
drink.
Men will tell you that they like to
see women who can drink a cocktail
or a glass of champagne without ma
king faces over it, but no man who
says that speaks the truth.
Ask the came man If he would like
to remember his mother as a drinker,
or if he would enjoy seeing his wife
drunk, and you will find out what ne
really. thinks.
Dinner parties at which champagne
Is served alike to men and women
are by no means confined to the very
rich.
In restaurants where cheap course
dinners are served it Is the custom to
begin with cocktails, and to finish
with one or more strong liquors that
are equally intoxicating. s..
In many families where the daugh-
ter's birthday party or coming out
party means a long period of saving.
the foolish mother thinks that the
affair would not be complete without
champagne, and serves it.
If she happens to be rewarded by
the sight IF her daughter intoxicated,
she usually knows better the next
time.
But if her daughter develops an ap-
netite for liquor. as many nm do,
the harm done by the mother in try
ing to give a smart" dinner can
never be undone.
Drinking and cigarette smoking
gre both decidedly unwomanly hab-
it's. Both ruin compilations and good
looks. besides giving men very queer
opinions Of their victims.
Young girls especially should hs
kent away from champagne and cock
tails as they would be kept away from
exposure to any other dangerous dis.
ease.
No mar who HIS ever seen a wo.
mar drunk would permit any girl
under his protection to take even q
harmless glass Of chamnagne.
The blame for the condition of the
girl who went to the notice court was
not hers, but belonged TO the man OF
the woman who allowed her to drink
And the police magistrate would
have proved himself far more worthy
to fill his position if he had made ii
a point to hunt down and rebuke
that person responsible, and give such
publicity to the rebuke that that per
son would never again commit a like
! offense.-From ar editorial by Ar
thur Brisbane, in the New York Even
ing Journal.