The Washington herald., 1915-07-18
Temperance Drinks.

What i temperance drink They are ask
ing the question in England and also in New
York. There will be as many answers as there
are advocates and users of the various decoc-
tons which have been in favor for many years or
have more recently been placed on the market
Mr.. II. G.. Wells, the English author, expresses
himself emphatically against terrible temperance
drinks solutions of qualified sugar mixed with vast
volumes OF gas, as for example. soda seltzer lem
onadC, and fire extinctcurs, hand grenades-mn-
erals they call such stuff in England-which fill a
mar with wind and scli-rightcousness Indeed
they do, Coffee destroys brain and kidney, fact
now universally recognized and advertised
throughout America, and tea except for kind
OF green tea hest used with discretion in punch
tanS the entraIl> and turns honest stomachs into
leather bags" So Mr.. Wells insists: III we are
TO have ale in Utopia give me the one clean
Temperance drink that is worthy to be set beside
wine, and that is simple water. Best it is when
not quite pure and with trace OF organic matter
for then il tastes and sparkles"
How many temperance people even "teeto-
talcrs" will follow Mr.. Wells and take to plain
water, either pure impure3 King George and
the royal household did not go so far The King
insists having barley water and the Queen
continues TO serve tea. Coffee is a general and
almost universal drink here in America notwith-
standing the wide advertising that it destroys
brain and kidneys. and probably because of the
old tradition that the discovery OF the virtues
OF the berry were due to the Arabian goat herder
who noticed that after eating it the goats were
risky, acting like man who had had glass OF
good wine. Tea has also become popular not
withstandng the trouble it once caused in Bos-
ton Harbor and in defiance OF such warnings as
those OF Mr.. Wells that it "tans the entrails and
turns honest stomachS into leather bags" The
Chinese insist that tea came as a gilt from the
gods just Noah believed his first command
from the Almighty to plant vine and make
wine
There a good many people who agree
with Mr.. Wells that soda water and the other
liquids that flow from the soda fountains, FILL
will, wind and self-rghteousncss" and Dr.
Baruch. president OF the American Association for
Promoting Hygiene and Public Baths, says that
more people innoccntly form the drug habit at
the soda fountain and patent medicine counters
than anywhere else. Notwithstanding these warn
ings, the soda fountain and the patent medicine
counter the most popular and best patro-
uizcd bars in the country where there is no restric
ton for age in drinking what they please.
The dccoctions that are advertised and used as
temperance drinks arc as numerous as are the
patent medicines that to all known and
unknown diseases. 1t has become almost a cru
SADIE for temperance drinks and yet the cold water
advocates fewer than We have not one
cold water advocate among all distinguished
temperance promoters. They all have favor
lite tipplc which is something else than plain water
And it is not a new development The first man
was not satisfied with plain water and Noah
could not be blamed for regarding it more of a
curse than a blessing, and trying to find sub
stitutc as as he reached dry land. So it has
continued with the races OF men. They would
drink water only when they had substitute for
1t. They have used it a dilutant for some
juice OF fruit, vegetable, grain, or some drug
all OF which are known to be injurious when taken
in immoderate quantities. The temperance drink
simply resolves itself into the old Chinese provcrb:
"lntoxication is not the wines fault but the
mans