They Used Stimulants.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9, 4 March 1905, Page 8

They Used Stimulants.

WELL BiiiLLiA.VI MIXES MALE MOLE BRILLIANT THEREBY? There was a long discussion at the Lotus ( lub the other evening about the u-e of stimulants by authors. Most of those who took part in tin argument maintained that real genius needed no outward or inward influences, and that Ihe divine spark would attain its greate i brilliancy if only let alone. As one expressed it, “Genius is a sort of mental radium, which throws oil’ power and light of its own self.”

One by one the members ol Hie minority became silent, and it seemed that tne nun-stimulants had won the battle, wnen an old, bushy headed man, who shaved all uf his face with the exception of a small tuft under his chin, took oil ms glasses and exclaimed: ■Why, then, du su many of them take something?” 1 his sally aroused seveial members ul the nun-stimulants tu challenge the speaker, whu replied: “Why, take uur deaily beluved Mark Twain, fur example. Don’t yuu remember what he says in hL bouk, ‘Following the Equator,’ how he tells of his inability to begin the book, and wondered at first what was the mater with him, how at last he decided that his abstinence from black cigars might be the reason, and how after he set them on lire again the words came to him.” There was a little pause, which was broken by the old man. who added more softly: “And 1 don't know whether you may have noticed it or not, but when Mr ( lemens is a guest at a public dinner, ami is expected to speak, he always sips a hot whisky. That’s what he did, for example, at the dinner our club gave him on his return from his long sojourn abroad some three years ago.” “But that is only one instance,” interrupted a member of the opposition. “Mr Clemens doubtless has ci.lds wiica he takes hot whisky, and as for his cigars, 1 think that was a Mark Twain “Well. then. I’ll recall some more examples. We all know that Pope coni. l not w rite unless he had sipped strong eofTee for an hour beforehand, and that often when writing the ‘Essay on Man' he would drink coffee instead of going to hi-; meals, for days at a time. Schiller found a peculiar inspiration in apples. As he could not eat them as he wrote without interrupting his Hights of thought, he saturated the table top on

w iiicif he worked with apple juice, su ilidL ne might constantly inhait an apple “uyiun, like Pue, used gin lu facilitate expression, although bull! lived before me day ol the gin lizz and the gin rickey. Both simply diluted tne raw spun with tepid water and let it cool neiore drinking. Tennyson smoked hard wnvn at work, and he is said to have miiued up seventeen pipefuls over a smgle couplet. Both Coleridge and De »iuincej used opium in the course ol their lives, and some of the most fantastic lines of The Ancient Mariner’ aiu said to have been penner under the inlluence of this drug. “bonie of our most eminent statesmen also are recorded to have indulged in stimulants under the stress of action. Gladstone’s favourite concoction was sherrj and egg. Disraeli ate champagne jelly. Webster used whisky. “1 could also quote many great actors who had recourse to stimulants, both in the strain uf preparing for a play and also in the stress of pol l raying their parts. Mrs Siddons dr« nk a glass of porter just before the curtain went up for each act. Edniun I Kean sipped beef tea in the wings constantly with a bit of cold brandy just before the crucial point of the play.” "But you don’t mean to say t .at. you advise a young man to take to drugs and liquors in order to win fame?” -aid a portly, smooth faced man who had preached in an up State- church before he began to write books on r ligion. One might see by the way he asked the question that no possible answer co.. . placate him. “I am giving advice to no one,” was tin quiet answer. “1 am only stating facts. If Byron bad not touched gin or (Teniivsim tobak-co. I have no doubt Ihe\ would have eventually reached as high ideals as your-.” But the lit era rv theologian onlv shook 1 is head. ’ ‘ ’