GINGER-DRINKING The Substitute for Whiskey in Georgia.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 344, 20 February 1889, Page 3

GINGER- DRINKING The Substitute for Whiskey in Georgia.

•A man can't get drunk on ginger, can he ?' a druggist was asked. ' Well, if you could see somo of my regular ginger drunkards ab times you would think so. Ginger is made from alcohol and ginger root. The root is ground and put into one of these funnolshaped percolators, after which the alcohol is poured upon it. and soaks through it, dropping into the jar, in the mouth of which is fixed tho funnel. This tincture is, as you" know, if you, ever tasted it, as hot as liquid fire, and a teaspoonful is a big dose for an oi'dinary man. One pound of ginger will make two quarts of tincture, and many prefer it to whiskey.' ' How much does a confirmed ginger drinker take at a dose ?' ' There are one or two men who are regular ginger drinkers that take as much as four ounces at a cime, or, to show you the difference, thirty- two teaspoonfuls. If you or I or any other man unaccustomed bo drinking ginger should take that much at once it would kill us. We would be apt to have convulsions at first, followed by a comatose condition, in which state death would come.' * How much to make a man drunk ?' * I have seen a man drunk on four ounces, and then again I've seen a man who drank the same quantity have a sort of epileptic fit, lascing for several minutes.' ' What effect will the drinking of ginger produce in the long run ?' 'It it far more injurious than whisky, and will kill a man who drinks it regularly in from two to three years' time. If yon should hold a tablespoonful of ginger in your mouth a minute, it would blister the inside coating of the mouth, and you can imagine what the effect on the stomach would be grappling with two or three tablespoonfuls of ginger every day.' ' Can you tell a ginger drinker from an ordinary man, or in other words, will the drinking of ginger affect the pei'sonal appearam- - cia man as whisky does ?' * Whi >zy drinking makes a man's face red. Ginger drinking makes it pale, as the ginger draws the blood away from the surface to the centre of the body. I've watched shese ginger drinkers closely and I've studied them a good deal. I've learned that an habitual ginger drinker, like a morphine eater, loses all l'egard for she truth. They also become hypochondriacs and imagine they are affected with every disease under the sun. One day they'll come in with a long face, declaring they've got colic and must have ginger. Another day they'll have heart disease and will surely die unless they can get ginger. The next time they have dyspepsia or rheumatism, but no matter what thej have they seem to think ginger the sovereign remedy, and nothing else will do them. The trouble with them is the ginger drinking, for it ruins the digestion, inflames the stomach, and throws the whole system into disorder. 'Is there any advantage in buying ginger V ' Ginger costs $1 a pint, while whisky sells ab from 50 cents up. The people who drink it, and they are numerous, both men and women, are for the most part mere physical wrecks who were confirmed drunkards when prohibition came upon us, and their unnatural appetites must be satisfied, so they bought ginger as the next best substitute for whisky. We ship ginger by the barrel to prohibition towns, as the old topers think' it is the best substitute for whisky, and once they get accustomed to it they prefer it to whisky.'