TEETOTALERS' BOOZE.

NZ Truth, Issue 119, 28 September 1907, Page 7

TEETOTALERS' BOOZE.

ALCOHOLIC "MEDICINES." "Stronger Than Whisky"— "Ten to Twenty Times Stronger Than Beer "—Some Amusing Stories.

At the annual meeting of that sacrosanct temperance organisation, the Victorian Alliance, the other day, Secretary Barrett referred to patent and proprietary medicines. He is reported to have said :— "The Alliance had had 36 patent medicines analysed, and they were found to contain from 13 to 47 per cent, of alcohol. Such medicines were a fraud ami a sham. The amending Liquor Bill should contain a provision that persons selling these so-called patent medicines, when they contained a certain percentage of alcohol, should be prosecuted for selling liquor without a licence." These he brave words, but is the Alliance courageous enough to follow ud the utterance of its official ? We trow not, since these "patent medicines" are

THE SPECIAL DELIGHT of the temperance people themselves. Moreover, has the Alliance really had the analyses made, or has it approportioned its information from certain patriotic American publications or from the pages of Commissioner Beale's report on "secret drugs?" It is remarkable that the figures quoted— l 2to 47 per cent.— are identical with those cited under the heading of "The 'Patent Medicine' Curse" on page 178 'of Mr Beale's report. That, however, may pass. The Commissioner shows conclusively that these alcoholic patent medicines arc principally patronised by "total abstainers," and that they (the ''bracers," as they are called) largely contain Italian vermouth, cheap gin, bitters, and very poor spirit.

But Commissioner Beale tells, on the authority of Samuel Hopkins Adams, several amusimr stories of .the effects of the imbibing of these "patent medicines" by temperance folks. Here is one :— "A testimonial hunter m the employ of the company was referred by a Minnesota druggist to a prosperous farmer (a teetotaler) m the neiffhborhood. The farmer save — a most enthusiastic 'send off 1 ; he had been using it for several months, and could say, etc., etc. Then he took | the agent to his barn, and showed him a heap of empty bottles. The agent counted them. There were 74. . The druggist added his testimonial. 'That old boy has a "still" on all the time since he discovered ,' said he; 'he's my star customer.' " "Why," asked the patent- medicine man, "should anyone who wants to get drunk drink when he can get whisky ?" One reason is that m many places the "MEDICINE" CAN BE OBTAINED and the liquor cannot. Maine, for instance, being a Prohibition State, does a big business m patent medicines. So does Kansas. So do most of the no-license countries m the South.

"I know," writes Adams, "an estimable lady from the Middle West, who visited" her -dissipated brother m New York— dissipated from hex point of view, because she was a pillar of the W.C.T.U., and he frequently took a cocktail before dinner and came back with it on his breath, whereupon she would ween over him as one lost to hope. One day, m a mood of brutal exasperation, when he hadn't had his drink, and was able to discern the flavor of her grief, he turned upon her. 'I'll tell you what's the matter with you, he said, 'you're drunk— maudlin drunk ! She nrompty went into livstcrics. The physician who attended diagnosed the case more politely, but to

the same effect, and ascertained that sho had consumed something like half a bottle of 's that afternoon. Now, is a very creditable 'booze.' but much weaker m alcohol than most of its class. The brother was greatly amused until he discovered, to his alarm, that his drink-abhorring sister couldn't get along without her medicine bottle ! She was m a fair way, quite innocently, of becoming a drunkard." Another example of this "UNCONSCIOUS DRUNKENNESS,"

recorded m the "Journal of American Medical Association" :— "A respected clergyman fell ill, and the family physician was called. After examining the patient carefully, the doctor asked for a private interview with the patient's adult son. 'I am sorry to tell you that your father undoubtedly is suffering from chronic alcoholism,' said the physician. 'Chronic alcoholism ! Why, that's ridiculous ! Father never drank a drop of liciuor m his life, and we know all there is to know about his habits !' 'Well, my bey,' replied the doctor, 'it's chronic alcoholism, nevertheless, and, at this moment your father is drunk. How has his health been lately ? Has he been takino- any medicine ?' 'Why, for some time,' said* the son, „'six months, I should say father has complained of feeling unusually tired. A few months ago a friend of his recommended to him. Since then he has .taken many bottles of it. and I'm quite sure he has taken nothing else !' "

Dr. Aslibel P. G-rinnell. of New York City, who has made a statistical study of patent medicines, asserts ps a provable fact that more alcohol is consumed, m America m patent medicines than is dispensed m a lerral way by licensed vendors, barring the sales of ales and beer. Peer contains only from 2 to 5 per cent, of alcohol, while some of these "medicines" contnin 10 to 20 times as, -much, making them stronger than whisks, far stronger than sherry or port, with claret and champagne "way behind" !