SECRET DRINKING IN SOCIETY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12425, 14 February 1901, Page 2

SECRET DRINKING IN SOCIETY.

(Tit-Bits.) A few weeks ago one of tire most serious scandals affecting the female members of the highest grades of society was the habit of secret drinking, which became vastly more common than most people feel inclined to believe. .The outcome of that dreadful evil among wealthy and aristocratic ladies is an infinitely worse, evil. The practical difficulties which have arisen, in the way of ladies continuing to indulge their cßiving for alcoholic stimulants, owing to the broad publicity given to the methodiS and devices they adopted, have thrown confirmed topers upon the alternative of secretly nipping at pernicious drugs and poisons. It sounds wild, but it is no hyperbole that scores- of favoured ladies, leaders of society many of them, are slowly doing themselves to death, or tracing their route to the mad-house, by the shocking habit of secret drinking. At one time ladies carried in their scentbottles alcoholic stimulants. Owing to the exposures of this trick it has become impossible—there is no longer any secret in. it. Hence these ladies, who have trained themselves by habit to be unable to do without frequent recourse to stimulants, are now thrown upon the necessity of imbibing the usual contents of scent-bottles, such as, for instance, eau da Cologne, or other dangerous pick-me-ups. Eau de Cologne is one of those things any lady can procure anywhere without exciting the least suspicion. Hundreds of gallons of the scent are sold annually in this country, and there is nothing to check its consumption. Yet it is a very evil and dangerous drug, and its popularity is accounted for by the fact that ai nip of it has much more desirable effects than whisky, brandy, or any similar intoxicant. * What is there to check a lady carrying eau de Cologne in her scent-bottle and nipping at it whenever she feels inclined? Nothing whatever. No one would be surprised by the aroma of eau de Cologne with ladies who haVfe been compelled to give up their old intoxicants and cannot get through their days without stimulants. Chemists and perfumers will tell you that the demand for eau de Cologne has gone up by leaps and bounds during the last few years, despite the hundreds of other and more popular scents always being put upon the market; and that ladies frequently drop in to have their scent-bottles replenished while out driving. The effect obtained by taking eau de Cologne is not unlike the effect of champagne to one who is not hardened to the stimulating powers of that delightful wine : a clearness of the mind, the disappearance of physical and mental fatigue, and a brightening of the complexion and eyes. But Ilow very dreadful is the speedy result. Like most, if not all, stimulating drink, the reaction, when the first effects pass off, is stronger than the first action: depression ■of spirits, a sensation of indifference to everything takes hold of the .■ subject, wbo ' probably, and not unnaturally, at once repeats the dose to overcome the melancholia of the reaction ; and this goes on indefinitely, until the health is ruined and, in'many cases the mental powers shattered. The digestive organs are impaired, the mind becomes chronically melancholy, and it only remains for the ruination of the digestive organs to kill the unhappy victim or the melancholia to drive her to a lunatic asylum. Red lavender is another drug which is extensively taken by ladies. The writer is acquainted with ladies who never leave their homes without a supply of this drug in their scent-bottles. They fluctuate between excessively high spirits and deep melancholy; food is distasteful to them, and brainwork very difficult. Red lavender is about seven times as strong and dangerous a stimulant as raw, coarse whisky. Yet very many ladies secretly addicted to taking it consume three or four ounces of it in the course of the day. The confirmed dipsomaniac has a fur better chance of long life than the victim of. the craving for red lavender.

Various devices have been adopted . by ladies'to facilitate drug-taking at all hours of the day. One particularly favourite device for winter is a long-haired muff in the fur of which is hidden a small bottle, the mouth of which is opened by the pressing of a spring inside the muff. A small silver tip is thus exposed, and by this the drug contained in the bottle can, be drawn into the mouth while the muff is held to the face as if to keep the keen wind from the nose and chin.

Fans, too, can also he had to carry a small quantity of any liquid drug in the handle of the first stick, and by this means a lady is able to imbibe her favourite stimulant even in the crowded ballroom or theatre, and surrounded by friends, Without exciting any suspicion.

With eau de Cologne, which is probably the poison—for poison it is—most extensively taken by ladies, there is hardly any occasion for secret contrivances beyond a little tube or mouth-piece to the scentbottles, so that the eau de Cologne can be drawn into the mouth and swallowed while the drug-taker merely appears to be smelling the contents of the bottle. Even so unpleasant a drug as ether has found its way to favour with secret selfpoisoners, by whom it is taken in two ways —inhaled or swallowed. It is not so dangerous as some of those drugs we have already mentioned, not even so dangerous as chloroform, which is also taken by some people as an alternative to alcoholic stimulants. But the habit of taking it is perilous, nevertheless, and will in time bring on chronic inflammation of the stomach. Inhaled it has effects not unlike those caused by opium, but when swallowed it is intensely exhilarating, so much so, indeed, as to bring about a mental condition closely approaching madness. Ether is not, however, generally indulged in, partly, perhaps, because the fumes betray the drug. With those to whom this is no consideration ether seems to have much to recommend it as a substitute for brandy and such spirits. And there is little hope for those who have really fallen under the spell of the drug.