Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-03-07
BETTER BEHAVED
THAN HIS OFFICER WHILE
SEEING PARIS
BY Herbert Corey
~ ARTS, Jan. 80 (By Mail.) SO there is
to be prohibition in the United States.

as, foreseeing the collapse of everything. His
gloom makes me think of Irwin Cobb's story
OF the two negroes who inspected the electric
chair in the death chamber at Sing Sing:
land when dey git de man in de chair,
asked one, ''and de warden pushes de button,
den what?'
Ruin" replied the other. "Jes' ruin
The experience of Europe during the last
four years and half should reassure these
viewers-with-alarm Every state in Europe
has interfered more or less with the liquor
traffic. The interference has ranged from
slowing down of the quality of the British
beer and whisky to d complete prohibition in
various towns and districts. Even today in
Paris the shortage of wines and whiskys has
decreased the sale. With port DIT sixty cents a
glass and whisky at seven to eight dollars
bottle, few people can afford to get comfort
ably tipsy
NOT A MITE WORSE OFF
Nothing has happened. No one has been Il
mite the worse for it, so far as l have seen
The Latin races are addicted to the reason
able use of light wines and beers with their
meals, and they have been somewhat put out
because the guests within their gates have
drunk most of their reserve supply. The
Anglo-SaXon is a mighty bottle man. Half
dozen men from across the blue water will
dispose in day of enough to last a French
family month But most of the French man
age to get their vim ordinaire and the visitors
will be all the better off for not having hard
liquor. ...
Now, am going to say something unpleas-
ant, but it is a fact for all that. We Amer1-
cans do not know how to carry our liquor.
We drink too fast. The old Kentucky rule
is observed by most of us. zone drink is too
little and two is too much and there isn't half
enough One of the restaurants here-its
name is known to every one who ever read
story of Paris-was closed for eight days re-
Gently. Two drunken American officers had
1nsulted the wife of French officer and he
had very properly and completely resented it.
CRITICIZED BY FRENCHMEN
There was fight in the Fo1ies Bergere
lounge the other night Drunken American
officers again. A fight in a railway station.
Drunken officers. A fight on the streets
Drunken officers. A fight in a cabaret
Drunken officers, plus drunken Y. NJ C. A.
secretary. The French are beginning to
may we'll be repeated. They criticize us very
severely. The other night | sat in a restau-
rant and listened to three American officers
braWling. By my side sat an elderly French
couple. After time the lady turned to her
husband:
care there, them" she asked, mo gentle
men in American
This is unpleasant reading, but it is the
truth. One often hears Americans here ask
other Americans to point out some new res
taurant
Zone that the Americans have not found
yet," they say.
TRY TO DODGE UNPLEASANTNESS
These are not Gallicized Americans that
ask for un-Americanized restaurants. They
are not eXpatriates No one has more COM
plete contempt for the unfortunately some
what numerous American who finds any for
elgn country better than his own than | have
II people OF that sort sought to avoid their
own people over here l would put the black
curse of Delaware county on them and let
it go at that But most of the avoiders are
draw horn +I11
on business. They only seek to dodge I'M
pleasantness 4aas
1t is necessary to emphasize the fact that
1t is the American officer who has too often
made nuisance of himself on the streets of
Parls-not the American doughboy. I have
seen few drunken priVates and non-coms of
course, but many more drunken officers Yet
the privates outnumber the officers by fifty
to one-perhaps more. 1 do not know the
exact proportion The American officers are
the pick of our people-college graduates
men of independent business, professional
men. But they drink too much, or they seem
to drink too much.
ANXIOUS TO CHANGE
The explanation is simple one. An Off
Ger gets to Paris on his leave, after six or
eight or twelve months spent in the bush
He wants to crowd everything he can into his
few days. He has set aside beaucoup francs
for the seeing-Paris trip, and aims to go back
to his unit as clean as a knife. Because we
nave HOC--dS d HaIlOn-Iearned now to drink
he takes too much He is gourmand rather
than a gourmet of sensations The other dav
saw pair of Americans swallow this appall-
ing sequence:
First, hot rum punch; second one dozen
iced oysters on the half shell; third, hot rum
punch; fourth, fish au gratn: beer more
oysters, rum punch and finally a cognac
When went out they were weaving up to the
par ana trying to make up their minds what
10 nave next The word had gone about, and
tour or five Frenchmen watched them in
amazement The proprietor evidently feared
tney would die on the premises, but being a
thrifty business man continued to sell them
drinks.
LATIN SIPS HIS DRINKS
No European would drink as the average
drinking American does. The Latin has
learned to sip his beer or wine. He makes a
very little last long time. Because his drink
lacks the potent punch of our whiskys. he
profits by it. He gets up from the table
mildly stimulated, inclined to take a roster
view OF life and goes home better husband
one goes nome better wife, sometimes, for
the Frenchwoman likes to sip a glass at q
cafe as we'll as her husband. There are nrov
lnces IN France where they drink American
fashion, of course.
Normandy is one of them. There cider is
made into applejack. Every Norman drinks
it. One Of the hardest races in France has
dwindled in size and vigOr because of he
drinking of hard liquor. The percentages of
epilepsy and tuberculosis and pauperism and
Whatnot have increased. Normans drink as
Anglo-SaXons door did-to get drunk.
motorist once told me he dared not travel On
Norman road at night.
"They weave out of the bitches and stumble
across the track" said he
P0TT,T1 0TTTWETGIIS