DRAM-DRINKING AT HOME.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 15, Issue 798, 23 June 1870, Page 4

DRAM-DRINKING AT HOME.

Dram-Drinking mothers are thus referred to by "John Perrybingle" in the Weekly Times : —The papers make out that the doc f ors give sick womenkind too much strong drink, and I think so too. I've told you before how it was. Many a time I see infant°-in-arms leering at me over their nurses' shoulders in a state of beer; and when I ask the reason of children taking to drink so eaily in life, some wide awake chap's sure to clap his finger to the side of his nose and say the word, " Porter," The mothers drink porter. The doctors say they must have it, and some stupid people believe that the doctors must know. It's just the same with brandy. If a baby looks tucked up, and sour, they make him drunk with brandy right off, and keep him drunk f r weeks together, t'll he gees delirium tremens, or dies. I know one at this moment chat's getting over a bad brandy time. There's no doubt the doctors have a good deal to answer for. They've made a many drunken wives, and they'll make a many more before they've done. Mind, 1 ain't a teetotaller; but I wouldn't like to see my wife mopping up bottles of beer aad port wine (and something stiffer) for all the doctors in creation. Not a bit of it. These :-oaking mothers rear sickly unwholesome children, with a born craving for unnatural food and drink. Well, after all, if the mothers didn't raise unhealthy kids, where would the doctors be? So I dare say it pays em in the long run to order "a teaspoonful of brandy in your tea, Mrs Muggins; a pint of wholesome stout at 11 o'clock, a glass or two of sound port wine at lunch, a little porter in the afternoon when you're nursing, a glass of champagne or moselle at dinner, with pale ale (bitter) to wash the cheese down, and port wine with dessert; and- at night a pint of norter (hot) with a bit of ginger in it."