FEMALE TIPPLERS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIII, Issue X, 2 September 1899, Page 411

FEMALE TIPPLERS.

The progress of drunkenness in France is provoking something like dismay among all persons interested in the welfare of the population. Until comparatively recently the French lower classes drank nothing but wine; or, in the northern provinces, beer ami cider. Of late years, however, the consumption of cheap and bad alcohol has increased to such an extent as to become a very serious danger to the health of the community. Intemperance is particularly rampant in Normandy and Brittany. A Kouen physician, Dr. Brunon, has just published a pamphlet on the subject, which shows the evil to be worse than was supposed. The special object of Dr. Brunon’s investigations has been drunkenness among women. In Normandy things have come to such a pass that the women drink even more than the men, although the latter are the most inveterate topers in France. This state of things, in the opinion of Dr. Brunon, is due in a large measure to the exceptional facilities the women have for obtaining drink. They have no need to go to the cafes or marchands de vin—the temptation awaits them at every turn and corner, for as there are no licensing laws in France, the grocers, greengrocers, coal merchants, and other shopkeepers have adopted the practice of selling intoxicating drink. The servants and other women who make their purchases in their establishments, make their visits the excuse for a glass, which is often given them by the shopkeeper with a view to securing their custom. Dr. Brunon declares that a cook who does not drink to excess is almost unknown in Normandy, and he cites the most

extraordinary cases of young girls of 2<> ami under who are already habitual drunkards. In one instance which he relates the cook was methodical enough to keep an account of her drinks, which was found by her mistress, who had several times found her unconscious in the kitchen. The woman was in the habit of taking from twelve to sixteen glasses of alcohol in the course of the day. Among the working classes the necessities of life may lx- lacking, but there is always money enough to procure cognac, or rather so-called eognae. The bottle remains on the table throughout the day. ami while the husband is awu.v at his work the wife empties it in repeated small doses. The work girls of the great Normandy linen factories indulge three times a day in what they call an "all together” (un tout ensemble), consisting of a very little coffee and a great deal of bail brandy. In the small towns, and even in the villages, things are no better. Dr. Brunon cites a hamlet in the Vescin where the street in which the grocer’s shop is found is •■ailed Dram street (line de la Fiole). because it is recognised that none of the women of the place ever visits the shop without consuming her petit verre. In the coast towns of Normandy the women pass their time drinking what they term, on account of its cost, “treizesous"—that is. a mixture composed of one sou’s worth of sugar, two sous’ worth of coffee, and ten sous’ worth of brandy. Dr. Brunon’s investigations merely corroborate those of previous inquirers, ami the International Temperance Congress, which is to meet in Paris next week, will have sufficient subjects of lamentation.