TEMPERANCE ITEMS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 5207, 14 December 1895, Page 3

TEMPERANCE ITEMS.

The chaplain of Hollowly Gaol, the Key. (t. P, Merrick, has lolij an interviewer that drink is the most prolific cause of crime; tbat at Millbank Prison iiicro arc three and a half miles of cells, and that two and a half miles aro filled with persons who have committed offences while underthe influence of drink. " I should say," he adds, " that Holloway Prison is even worse, for out of fifty cases under my charge at tlio pre- J sent time, only six are for felony—the others aro of the drunken scries." I

"An Indignant Liberal," Bristol, claims (iu the Daily News)" compensation for abstainers ou the ground that poor ratos, which press so heavily on liouseiiolders, arc veritable drink bills. Ourwork-liouse?,gaols, lunatic asylums, and to a very large extent our hospitals, aro crowded by victims of this most, fruitful source of misery and death; and abstainers and all who wish that these degrading influences should be controlled at their springs, should demand for themselves some exemption." Tho reason that a man sees double who has gazed too long on the wine when it is red is that the nerve centres are changed by the action of the alcoholic poison. There is a waut of harmony iu the action of the muscles which move the eyeballs. Consequently instead of both eyes being focused simultaneously ou an object, one eye receives auimprcs* sion independently of the other. Tho two-impressions are communicated to the brain, and the object is seen twice. The inflamed condition of and loss of energy iu the brain centres from over dosesof alcohol also account for the staggering gait of an intoxicated man,— New York World

Jlr Stanley, M.l'., the famous African discoverer, concluded an interesting speccli in London last week by saying he had tried to teach numbers of Englishmen how to live iu Africa but invariably failed, He had seen a young man, more or less anxious to distinguish himself, walking in the sun with a saucer cap on his head, such as bo would wear in the temperate regions of Scotland. That man never returned to Scotland. He had seen another too fond of the liquor, and had tried in vain to teach him that a tabloid of quinine was better for him than any gin, Portuguese wine, or French cognac. If tlicy went to Jianana Point, they would see a number of his people resting under headstones there, but if they traced their lives, they would find that he had spoken the truth. Beer (says the Paris correspondent of a society paper), all but unknown in Frauce before 1870, now floods this country. Alcohol is poured from distilleries, where the refuse of beetroot used in making sugar, is a substitute for grapes or malt, Beer saloons replace the cafes, where beforo the war, Frenchmen sipped coffee and sugared water, and met friends as in an informal drawing-room. Flaunting women and boozy men crowd into the beer saloons. So-called American bars are centres of gross rowdyism. In some parts of the town, waitresses serve iu tlio beer saloons. Thoy are expected to drink for the good of the house, at the cost of customers. A girl who docs not- empty bock after bock, and keep on asking for more, is thought not worth keeping. Calcutta, writes the Mum Bail;/ News of July 18th, is experiencing the pangs of a wholesale panic, which has even extended to quarters. There is a great running hither and thither, a hasty unlocking of wine bins aud spirit cases, and a breathless scrutiny of unopened bottles, The cause of this flurry is the revelation of Jlr Croft's method of manufacturing whiskies and brandies. He first adopted the simple plan of diluting 60 per cent, over-proof potato spirit with homely water, bringing the eompouud down to GO under proof, aud selling it as brandy and whisky. But his customers complaining that they were being supplied with water, he determined to remedy the defect. So nicotine was added, so that it should he "heady," capsicum to make it " bite," and sulphuric acid and oil of sweet almonds to supply it with" heads," that is to say, with little air globules to rise up when the bottle is shaken, a test of virtue with the knowing ones. Some of this" lieal Scotch," put up in bottles with splendid labels, has found its way intoalcadingCalcutta Club. The authorities have also discovered that two steamship companies have been regaling their passengers with Croft's choicest blends, It is said that he intended making use of wood naphtha as the basis of his whiskies and brandies, so the members of the aforesaid club, and persons who have recently taken steamer trips, may comfort themselves with the thought that they might kayc fared worse if Croft's little doings had notbeenbrougbt to light so early in the day. Probably, remarks the same journal, another big sensational case will arise out of the proceedings against Croft. The startling discoveries have incited the authorities to a vigorous search into the manufacture and sale of spurious liquors. A correspondent writes that inquiries have revealed the fact that there is an offender whose operations have been far greater than Croft's. They hope to lay their hands upon him in a few days, when the evidence they have already collected, has been properly liuked together.