THE DRINK HABIT IN FRANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 142, 17 June 1899, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE DRINK HABIT IN FRANCE.

A SHOCKING PICTURE

The congress for the suppression of spirituous drinks just held in Paris (says a correspondent of the Melbourne 'Age') has been the seventh of its kind, and had an international aim. It Was not what Carlyle would class as a 'talking shop;' It had stern evils to grapple with'and •addening statistics to relate. .It laid bare a social horror, above all in rich Normandy, that cannot fail to arrest the attention of the most indifferent. The consumption of ardent spirits—or eau-de-vie, Cognac, brandy, or alcohol—has arrived at such a level that some drastic measures must be at once taken to check the evil. Rouen and Havre are the chief towns in Normandy, and they are also the most proverbial for the inebriety of its working classes and the lower section of the middle classes. It is no shame to be seen intoxicated. Worse than all, the women in drinking surpass the . men; they are continually 'nipping' from morn till night; they have a snuff-box bottle, capable of containing threepence worth of spirits; when it is drained, why it is simply renewed. The women rarely quit the state of a stupid muddle. , • .

Twenty years ago such a condition of things was unknown. . i Normandy _ yras the region of cider, as'the North-Is-of beer, and the centre or south of France of wine. But we have changed all that; distilling beet, potatoes, apples, mangels and wood has produced several kinds of spirits, all cheap and each poisonous. Rouen has a large section of her female population employed at the cotton and woollen mills. They earn fair wages, marry relatively young, and have many children, but the latter die off very young; two-thirds before the' perlQd of infancy be passed. Coffee and' spirits are the' food, as well as the. beverage; not much solid ailments are taken; besides, those who drink most eat least. Before going to work, coffee and alcohol; at dejeuner, herring, coffee and spirits; at dinner, after work, something pf the game regime. What consiUtutiqn could . stand that regimen? :■■'.•

Women who do not work .at mill* pass their time at each other's, homes, after the husband has returned to his occupation, in drinking and gossiping.. .Nurses who rear children for P^rjsi^n parents or the public charity board keep t be hat»es quiet by alcohol; 'awe. drap in the cc' dries up tears apd disperses crying. The servant girl is in her glory; in ■ Frailer ahe does all the marketing;. she has her pennies, and is a somebody in the eyes ot a shopkeeper. She is soon harpooned- She coal man,.the cpsterroonger, the grocer look out for. her; they have quite a-epl-lectic-n of liqueurs, in several bottles; the girl is helped to h,er dram; She gpe. to another shop for some other purchase; the drop is repeated. In the course p. an ordinary, day she can have quaffed 16 little glasses of cordials, whose compp. ition, perhaps, toxieologists cpuld npt discover. She soon becomes a seasoned cask.

And the men? The same dietary, only. Jess coffee and more spirits,. •'< >•-•

And the children? Breakfa.t on a soup made of spirits, and along .with their junk of bread for the se|io«l hjncl. # ijttl. bottle of spirits and water, ~

This evil has not pnjy caught the Working population of the towns; it has extended like the &wp p. Qil,op a sheet of paper to the rural districts, jt has £*steried upon the lower rungs o. the \Bjijjdle class ladder, ahd risjes upwards."',"'.'. '.' .

The remedy? One may be e^piise^. _>i*!istng for a reply, it is pfoposed; that no moderate drinking be recognjsed, a. .4 especially for those whp .!i«id.rt&fee to preach and. to lead. Np primrose path to be trod. No license is required .o.opew a pub. in France.; hence why.the eoai **»."■ and coster monger are -draw-seller, j they live in 'holes in the wall,', pay a nominal rent, and their patent or license is based en that rent. Reduce their number, «x----tirpate. them by a Draconic law? gut the roest powerful electoral interest in France is the dealer jn drinks. Then how obtains the millions for the Treasury, if you sweep away the minnews^-fpr it is the man, the y-olume, that brings the grist to the mill? Limit the distilling industry, for it is not difficult to set up a still. But where is the cash to come ffpxa to indemnify the distiller for taking fl*ay his means of livelihood? And what i9 do with the excise army, that watofces the stills and the smugglers? Raise fie -duty on spirits? But that has already .a^tiyed at the snapping point, and sp could only favour the contrehandier* In the congumption of intoxicating ~ beyerag.es, France, that %. years ago was. .at the-bot-tom of the list Is now at the top. ;