Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-02-13

1t was condition rarely met with either
IN the workmen or in the upper class.
In any of these countries If an inebriated
person tottered alol the street he was
hailed with derision, hooted at by the
small boy and was a target for the jeers
and Kisses of every passerby. but this
feeling against the man who has ''ta ken
too much has changed within the last
ten or twelve years in France.
The people of the other countries still
keep to their custom of drinking only
the natural light wines of their country.
and they remain sober, Industrious and
law-abiding. but in France the gradual
introduction of spirits has brought into
existence a generation possessing lower
mentality, less robust physique and
filed with unsound principles
France is facing Il big problem The
thinking Frenchmen all are using their
united strength and brain to check this
evil. the sorry consequences of which are
manifest today. The whole beautiful
country of France is in the throes Of the
green plague \ greater adversary than
ever Napoleon had to fight against is in
her cities with powerful allies in the
towns and the countryside Napoleon is
generally accredited with robbing France
Of her most stalWart men. thus leaving
in his wake only the weaker, but the
saNants now claim that alcoholic drinks,
the most formidable of which is absinthe
are the cause for the degeneration of to-
dav.
n the minds of the ma jority of Euro
peans the army and navy are the back
bone of every country and there is much
reason in this conclusion. Until a more
enlightened era, when a universal peace
conference will settle all International
disputes, the countries of Europe must
protect themselves with strong army
of StalWart men. 1t is in the French
army that the disastrous effects of too
much alcohol or absinthe drinking are
felt first. Most of the recruits indulge
more or less in the poisonous drink so
that the very foundation of the army is
undermined and weakened According.
TO the statement made by famous of
hccr, the garrfsons are filled with men
physically unfit. the hospitals are incum-
bered with sick soldiers. the police sta
tions and prisons are filled with insubor-
dinate men. the undoubted cause being
drink. Drink, he SAYS, is the arch en-
envy to discipline and without discipline
there is army.
This sad state Of affairs has extended
even to the colonies, and the native Afr
cans are being decimated by the alcohol
habit introduced to them by the oeci-
dentals. Regions that We're very pro
ductive are slowly becoming denuded of
labor, for the colonists must depend on
the native negro. inasmuch as the white
man is not acclimatized. and perhaps i'm
certain districts never can be.
Statistics show the appalling decrease
of the population in the provinces OF
Brittany. Normandy, Picardy, etc, whe"c
the race has been heretofore so stron.
and vigorous. In Normandy alone there
has been loss IN the last Twenty-Five
years of 2o,Un Inhabitants In some
districts the rapid decline of the race has
been ~ or 20 per cent of the population
When one realizes that the French as q
people are not emigrating to other coun-
tries one must look for the cause for this
terrible falling off. Children born OF
alcoholic parents die by the hundreds be-
fore leaving the cradle. and the military
authorities claim that alcohol costs
France an army corps each year, and the
French army contains only twenty corps
France has unique custom-that is
the ''aperitif hour. What the French
people call aperitif' is in the American
pariance an appetizer Each day from )
o'clock practically all men cease
whatever work they engaged in TO
indulge in their habitual aperitif, when
IL, III the great majority of cases. a glass
of abSinthe. Other countries in Europe
depend on their afternoon tea or coffee,