THE GREAT DRY LAND

Evening Star, Issue 17328, 16 April 1920, Page 6

THE GREAT DRY LAND

AMERICA'S " BEAT " ON THE WORLD IX VIRTUE! The greatest drought on earth is now the natural birthrigut of Americans (says the American correspondent of the ' Sunday Chronicle'), and I believe that secretly they take pride in the magnitude, of that desiccation. Think of it —a hundred million souls, and not a glass of beer to share between them! The carious part of the affair is that America has bacome dry if not -without a murmur, at least without a kick. The great majority aro resigned, if parched : and all but the "serious drinkers "—one of the delightful phrases I have picked up hero—declare that America will never again become " wet.''

Grime has diminished, trade is brisker, and productivity is greater. The dryness certainly does not seem to diminish strikes; the whole country has struck, is striking, or is about to strike. Even the "routine murders" are holding their own.

The dry champions are eo pleased with the success of their operations that they axe beginning a campaign to make tobacco smoking illegal; and these are but the nibblings in their work of reform. They me?n to go for the whole Hindenburg b'na of the peccadilloes of men. In some States it is even now illegal to smoke cigarettes 1 GONE GOOD! "We're a virtuous nation," said an American to me at dinner. .The look in his eyes spoke unutterable things, for I' remembered him at a time when he oscillated bet-wean the poles of whisky highballs and butter-milk, and the flamboyant days of his recovered youth were not tho3« of the butter-milk. That bland liquoi now marks the limit of -his excesses. Is the law ever broken? Yes, but with a sense of holy terror. In oud city -wher« I was introduced to the members of an athletic club I observed that look of maudlin astuteness, the stertoroiv;, incoherent utterance, the confidential amiability, that made me expect to see the "real stuff." It was there all right, but so was "mi out« side guard of the police.

In one New York restaurant I saw a bottle of French wine disporting--'in all ita glory. A few days later it was impossible to have bought a glass of the lightest of wines for love or money. All that waa left was " near-beer.' though one-half of 1 per cent, can only with difficulty bo called near.

At another restaurant I saw some French. wines disguised to look like ginger ale—a pathetic sight. It was being drunk by a Xew York magnate, who had with great precision thought out tiis strategy. "If there's any sign of police," he said, "over goes the whole table."' T.T.S USE FIRF.-FR.OXS. These precautions were not excessive, for two nights previously a number of dry polietj officers had suddenly burst into a saloon —kept by one Tommy O'Brien—ami on slight provocation had shot right, and left, bringing down a "'serious drinker" and a gentleman who was standing on the. side-walk outside. The wets have thrown up the sponge for the moment, but they talk of revising the law in seven years' time. Well, a high ideal will lead men on, but imagine the feelings of a serious drinker compelled to work seven torrid years for the chance of a glass of whisky. There is also .talk of starting a lino of steamboats twice weekly to the Bahamas, or even to Porto Rico • even of moois ins a big hotel outside, the three-milo limit. Diplomatic difficulties heTe arise, however, fcr it the flag be the Stars and Stripes Prohibition will e.till reign, whereas if it hj?. foreign, then passports must be obtained for each voyage. Private enterprise has solved the difficulty in some cases. For instance, a man in Ronton discovered what he called .1 ''self-starter." It was made up of molasses, pepper, raisins, .and wheat. Possibly also an old bottle of rum. At any rate, the self-starter did not know" where to stop, and as he tried to fighi several soldiers he was given a fortnight to get back to his old scratch. IX PRIVATE CELLARS. If a man has liquor in his own cellat ho can use it, or even give it to his guests. A journalist friend of mine told mo he was safe for five years ahead ; a millionaire net long ago spent a. hundred thousand dollars on a like insurance. A remarkable fact is that Mr Pussyfoot Johnson, who talks so large on the British horizon, at present is almost unknown in America. Certainly Pussyfoot was not one of the big men.

The serious drinker here ia so incensed that ho will not allow that there was & big man at all. If pressed by the suggestion that a movement strong enough ti> put the stranglehold on him trust have had someone who counted hehind it, ha answers vaguely and hopelessly: "Oh, it'» women folk."

At other times one gets name* such ai Anderson or Dinwicidie ns the great organ* i-sc-rs. with William J. Bryan, once fe Presidential candidate, end the famom Hobson, of the Spanish War, ag active propagandists. The truth, however, seems to bo that the women, led at one time by Mrg Willard, were really at the bottom" of it, and that the movement was like Topsy—» it came from nowhere in particular; it just grew.

The war gave the chance. The big brewers, moreover, mostly German, by in* stituiing a system of tied houses and low saloons, where laxity of morals wag encouraged, had hastened the end.

These big brewers, bv their greed and by their want of psychology, prevented the chance of saying the light French wines or mild beers. They have gone to perdition for the moment, but they are talking of starting a big gambling* hell, with unlimited beer to accompany it, somewhere in some at present innocent tropio isle.