The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1917-08-31

THAT this stupidity Is a special
German characteristic, / never would
admit, and the conviction was final
ly forced upon me that 1t was the
was in multiplying attempts In advance
ment I'm literary and scientific pur-
suits among Germans I'm America.
In the year 1900 ! came back to
Germany to remain Here / was struck
by the appearance of premature age,
lack of alertness and inclination for
work in the German, so different from
the Anglo Am erican. The conclusion
was unavoidable that here is made
clear the -incalcuable damage growing
out of our German drinking GUS
toms"
Abstinent Americans Are Merry.
Professor Walter Rauschenbusch,
of Rochester. n. Y, in a remarkable
address at Dessau, Germany, warned
the German people that their brilliant
natural capacities were being dulled
and perverted by the insidious infiu-
ences of beer drinking. He called at
tention to the practical absence of So
cial drinking in America and said:
THE Americans are abstemious on
such occasions and for that very rea-
son they are jolly. They laugh much
more than the Germans; they arc not
without the JOY of living"
Prof schenbusch also attacked
the crowd suggestion" in Germany as
assaulting the personal liberty OF the
abstainer and pointed to the effects
OF beer drinking as indicating its
brutalizing power:
Gcrrnany's Best Sacrifice TO Drink.
when we look more closely at Ger.
man life, we sec that the drinking ha-
bit Is not harmless. The coarsest.
most brutal scenes that | have ever
witnessed In all my life, were not in
America but In Germany. We see
continually how many lives are spoil
ed by drink. But we see that also
in Germany among a class of young
men who are almost immune in Amer
ica--the educated young man.
II have been educated partly In
Germany and partly in America ard
the friends of my youth are IN both
countries. Among the American
friends OF my youth I do not know a
single one who has been injured by
drink, but among my friends and rela-
tives and school fellows in Germany
know a large number who have been
ruined in the saddest way, so that the
most heart breaking family tragedies
have occurred.
1T is worth your while to think
about this and ask yourselves why in
so many of the cultivated families Of
Germany the social drinking habit de-
mands so many more victims than II
does in similar circles in America
Think only of the many German
men. poets and thinkers who have
been ruined by alcohol. I remember
some of the sweetest and dearest
names in our German literature ruin
ed by drink. I know OF only one
among the Americans, Edgar Allen
and he ha1nruaN ~ ~
fore the total abstinence movement
began
II we look through our German
history. we see that many Of our
intellectual heroes have suffered from
chronic alcoholism; and we learn that
all our German history has been more
deeply influenced by the chronic al
coholism Of some of the chief leaders
than most OF us would think.
German Social Life Debasef and En-
dangcred by Alcohol.
Ind we see still more the danger
If our social drinking habits So
many abnormally Redeemed faces, SO
many eyes with haggy eyelids Two
things struck me Immediately on my
landing in Hamburg or Bremen-the
immense number of uniforms, and
the immense number of corpulent
men.
The physiognomy Of our academic
youth Is strongly marked by the in
fuence of social drinking am
university professor and when I look
at the students here I miss the inner
Frightening up of youth. and the ideal
TRANSPORTATION of enthusiasm I see
so many, many spongy faces, so many
dough faces. The cause is partly to
be found in the drinking habits Of
the university. =.
Beer and Reverence for Womanhood.
Have your ladies ever considered
the fact that they can go out at night
alone without male protection In
America. while they cannot do II here,
The American girl can drive out and