Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1920-08-04
THE BARTENDER'S
TRUE STORY
WHAT MAN DOES TO BOOZE
AND WHAT BOOZE DOES
TO MAN.
Continued from last week.

There were men VINO came liltO ouA
place. who, l believe, drank simply
TO get up courage to talk about thelh-
selves. | have noticed that the more
they had to drink the less dlscrlmlh-
alton they showed. They would Dul-
tonhole anybody, buy drinks Tor any
one who would listen to them. Inc
more they drank, the more they prdC-
tied and the more they Iled. op-
served that a heavy drlnker was gen
orally very selfish. HIS donatlohs 70
Salvation Army girls, begging nuns
and the like, were most OFTEN lllspil-
ed not by generosity, but by desire
TO show off-to give away money Win
everybody looking on. 1t was lack
of meutal balance which MADE MN
throw away money ne could not d.
ford.
In watching men drink, / formed
theory. Some booze affected men
worse than other booze. l decided
that a bartender should prescribe for
his customers. | was a dispenser of
alcohol: and one customer could
could stand more alcohol than anoth-
er. A bartender who considered the
mixing and serving of drinks an art
should never let a customer take
something that was dynamite" for
him.
It always amused me to hear beer
spoken of as a harmless drink" In
the cafe where / worked we did not
have many heavy beer-drinkers.
was glad. 1t is my experience that
heavy beer-drinkers made as much
trouble as whisky-drinkers. You
doubt this? / have seen at the bar
how countless glasses of beer so af-
fected men that they would do any
thing
Now there was only one pleasant
moment in the beer jag, the point
where the drinker radiated good Will
toward all. A similar stage was
reached when man drank whisky
only it was much shorter period.
That was because the higher percent
age of alcohol in whisky let a man
reach this stage in One-sixth of the
time he could reach it drinking beer.
If you caught a whisky-drinker in
that brief period of a desire to show
off his good will, he opened his purse
wide. After that, all depending on
the individual, he became belligerent
or obliviOus.
There was no such thing as a mod
.
year by year, man took more and
more. The small amount OF alcohol
which first satisfied him no longer
came to satisfy him, and so he drank
more heavily
I have seen booze" affect so many
people in so many different ways that
/ am convinced it is impossible to lay
down any hard and fast statements
concerning it. Booze is erratic.
recall a man who one day put down
six cocktails without batting an eye
and was as sober as a judge. Two
DAYS later ] saw that same man be-
gin to glow with intOXication from
just two highballs made of ginger ale
and rye whisky. He was going to
get drunk because whisky affected
him differently than gin.
1t has been my observation that
young men are harder drinkers than
middle aged men; and l know that
this does not tally with general opin-
ion. Perhaps this is because young
men have keener imaginations. The
booze stirred them and started rosy
and pleasant dreams. l have seen
young men, not thirty, stand up at the
bar and, after slowing away highballs
at rate that would shock seasoned
drinker, unloosten their tongues, tell
ing In voices heard over the whole
barroOm the wonderful deals" which
4they were going to put through. 1t
has been my notice that younger men
were particularly anxious to hove
themselves thought important and so,
when they were drinking they let
their tongues wag.
There is one thing, though about
the ideas which came when a man was
drinking-some of them were inclined
to be a little shady. / have heard
men, whom l knew would never be in
crooked deal, after getting some
highballs under their belts, outline to
their companions some of the rawest
deals. l guess booze did make some
people think crooked And | know
this-the fellow who was drinking
heavily all the time, got to be one aw-
full liar | don't understand this, but
/ know it is true | knew of a young
fellow who made a lot of money sud-
denly and took to running too fast.
They used to call him lone square
guy" Today nobody would believe
that man under oath. He became
such a liar that he couldn't tell the
truth to save his soul, even on the
most unimportant and trivial things.
Booze did that to him.
There was one, kind of drinker
never could stand and every time he
lined up at the bar, l felt like climb
ing over and throwing him out He
was the fellow that booze made fool
the man who when he got a few
drinks, became a wise guy" and
Knocked" everybody. l always heard
this kind of fellow telling how good he
was and sneering at everybody else.
Then there was that man around
fifty who soaked up booze and went
along the bar repeating one sentence
to everybody, and asking everybody
to have a drink with him. A few
nights after the armistice was signed.
there came to the bar the advertising
manager of a well-known periodical
He was that kind. All he did for a
solid hour was to drink and tell ev-
erybody who would-or would not
listen to him, Yankee Bull and John
ME Bull rule the world. Fine! Have