THE DRUNKEN MAN PROBLEM.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 681, 26 March 1903, Page 21

THE DRUNKEN MAN PROBLEM.

The leading English organ of the Trade ■writes : —“ We share with every member of the Trade an aversion to the drunkard, and we welcome any measure which gives the licensed victualler more facility for dealing with this pest when occasion requires. The habitual is a walking or reeling curse to society ; the drunk and incapable must be taken care of in his own interests, and the drunk and disorderly must be taken to task for his disorderliness. But the case of the simple, occasional, inoffensive drunk is different, and it is to be hoped that the police and the magistrates will exercise the keenest powers Of discrimination in dealing with this innocuous variety. The police officers have been cautioned all over London to moderate their zeal, as far as is reasonable, in the matter of branding inSividuals .as drunk, within tlhe meaning of the Act ;*lnrt tfe Home Office clearly neglected an opportunity of being of service to the community by disregarding an attempt that was made to have the word ‘is ’ substituted for the phrase ‘ appears to be ’ intoxicated. We have had so many instan- , ces of men becoming incapacitated or excited from what Bessy Broke called ‘ hospital ’ causes, and of their erratic behaviour being wrongly attributed to ?> j cobol, that we cannot understand why the ■ authorities should have refused to make this reasonable concession. For it must be borne in mind that under the old Act the drunkard was fined or imprisoned, not for being drunk, but for being helpless or fractious, as the case might be. The police had some excuse for charging a man with inebriety when he exhibited symptoms which are usually associated with a state of inebriation, but they will have to exert an extraordinary precaution now that such accepted indications need not be proved against the person who is charged with the simple offence. A man’s gait, his habit of gesticulating as he walks the street, or of talking to himself, have before now been mistaken for signs of inebriation. There are those who never show signs of excessive libations. There are others that never appear to be strictly sober, and there are those again who suffer from an affection of the optic or spme other nerve. Constitutional perversitreb of manner are always hard to endure. They were in 1902, but they are likely to be even more insufferable in the future unless the police exercise a masterful discrimination. ' An irresponsible eyelid or a weak ankle is sufficient reason under the new Act to bring the afflicted person before the superintendent of the nearest police-sta-tion, and, as superintendents are not infallible, to load him with even greater indignities. The man who blows his nose with unction or falls asleep in an omnibus is liable to be misjudged by a zealous young constable, and nobody whose nose does not remain absolutely impervious to the colouring influence of our vacillating temperature can hope to be considered above suspicion.