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Show I I CHATTER. f 1 (Being tlio porsonal opinions of tho It , wrltor, and for which no one clso Is In any manner responsible.) j j Having knocked out a proposol pro-18 pro-18 j; hlbltory law, by a popular vote, Los H; Angelts now plans to placo tho sale of !' Intoxicants In tho hands of a so-called (i ' "bonovolont association"; desires to jl'.i limit tho number of places at which if : liquor may bo sold, removing them all ;ff; from tho residence district, and to re-Lir re-Lir strict tho sale of liquor In tho business l Ij , portion of town to beer and light ; wines. It guarantees to tho municipal-' municipal-' ;' ity something liko $186,000 per an-t an-t j num and reduces tho number of drink-Jj drink-Jj ' cries from 200 to about 75. Whether fl I tho plan will bo adopted or not, reft re-ft i 'j mains to bo seen. ft Ti Any movement having for its object if ,j ' tho discouragement of tho drink habit t ,. , Is commendable. Wo, as a people, ft ; ' drink too- much. Dut there is no use '- in enacting legislation unless it Is !!:..! enforced, and If Los Angeles, or any fX' other town wants to restrict drinking, Jt , the laws must bo enforced after on- J, 1 1 actment, or no good will result. Penn- a'li, sylvania has tho best liquor law in j (V1 the. world, but It Isn't enforced, and ,f . i' there is just as much drunkenness in CL'i the Keystone state as In any other, ? i population considered. Decisions of J ) courts are law, when validated by tho tribunals of highest resort. It has p been decided In Pennsylvania that a ,i; man who takes a drink is intoxicated. I ( True, thero aro degrees of lntoxlca-i lntoxlca-i lion, as every ono knows. A man may "f bo mildly drunk, half shot, full up or sj paralyzed. But Pennsylvania has dc- fj elded that ho who gets drunk twice a II year is an habitual drunkard. Tho J j law forblls tho sale of liquor to an !i habitual drunkard. Hence, if tho law J in Pennsylvania was to bo carried, ob- I served to tho letter, tho average Pennsylvanlan would got two drlnk3 ih per year and no more. !, & j That part of tho Los Angolo3 l schomo which proposes to limit tho f ! sale to beer and light wines Is a good 3 1 Idea. Provided, that tho lawmakers I eo ono step farther and provldo a j jt standard of purity for said beer and : j . light wines. Those bovtrages contain i a low pcrcentago of alcohol, and while S ' . no can get a healthy jag on by copi- ous Indulgence, a fellow has to mako a '.lt, beast or himself In order to got Into ' ; a rollicking, frollclng conlltlon by rea- son of imbibing cither In thoir pure , ritato. If beer Is mado pure, and ac- I I cording to tho standard sot in tho days j ' when hops wcro used and aloes were ; not; when barloy was employed and 'ij.'' rice was not; when boor was "on ' lager" a given timo and not sold jj. "rreen," a man might drink three or ' four, or five glasses without damage ti ' to himself, or even "fill himself clean u up to hero," moaning tho point intli- cated by tho location of his Adam's ff , npplo. If wino is mado from tho julco J of itho fruit, Instead of logwood, ana- ,,,, lino dyes and alcohol. Its uso In mod- oration Is not harmful. No man over worked up a jag such as tho Keoley euros treat, by drinking puro juico of , ( tho grape. No, sir, such a condition of tho nervous systom Is tho result or r high wines, mado from corn, ryo or ,j, other stuff and doctored with drugs. ' i ; Men got In that sliapo now, not as tho result of Intoxication, but through poisoning. Tho avorago wine sold in this city is no mora wino than so much extract of belladonna. A saloon man in this city related to tho wrltor a fow days ago that In ono night ho changes a barrel of claret to port. Now' wouldn't that amuso you? Changing Chang-ing a barrel of claret to port! In the first placo had It been claret, It could not have been changed to port, bo- cause tho process of fermentation or tho claret and tho port Is differe . tho grape from which port Is mado Is , different, but being neither claret nor ( l . i port, It was easy to add the chemicals, tho coloring mattor, the alcohol necessary neces-sary and tho trick was done, and tho poor dovlls who drank It wore humbugged hum-bugged and drugged. A certain "rectifier" "rec-tifier" on Second South makes whiskey whis-key that ho sells for ton cents per half pint, 20 cents per pint, 40 cents per quart, $1.G0 per gallon, retail. A bottle of tho stuff is yclept a "Mickey," and Is bought by men of tho Eph Kelly class. It Is alcohol, cheap, doctored wino and anallno dyo; that's all. It will kill alt a longer rango than a Krag-Jorgenson; It will chase you by your tracks in tho snow and got you; when a man drinks It a dog will not bito him, and ho can sleep In a stable full of mules and nover get kicked. t & There ought to bo a law making such work a felony, but thero Isn't, and this rectifier gets off free. Not so his victims. Thoy aro the men who get fined for drinking, for poisoning themselves. If tho United States, which has moro to do with tho liquor trafilc than tho states themselves, would only declare a certain standard for all beers, wines and high wines, and punish severely those found 'with any adulterated, or doctored alcoholic fluids In their possession, drunkenness, drunken-ness, so-called, would soon decrease. Winn should bo mado from fruit juices; not log wood and cotton baltting, mixed with ohcap alcohol and coloring matter. mat-ter. Boer should be browed from hops and barloy; not made up of rice, aloes and rosin. Tho average browory doesn't uso anywhere near tho amount of hops It used to, because hops aro expensive. High wines should bo distilled dis-tilled according to a standard of purity. pur-ity. No man ever started out to get sodden sod-den drunk. Ho drinks because he wants to bo happy; because ho wants to becomo oxhllarated; becauso ho wants to get up a pleasant sensation and alcohol In limited quantities helps him along. But with tho beer, the liquor and tho doctored wines ho gets tho first thing he knows ho Is elected. Had his beer boon ptiro and well aged; had his wino boon fruit juico fermented; ferment-ed; had his whiskey been properly distilled dis-tilled and aged; had his gin been manufactured from juniper berries nnd Ills rum from tho molasses of Jamaica, Instead of being adulterated with old boots, kerosene, plug tobacco and all sorts of stuff, ho would have got cn a small bender and awoke next morning with no dark brown tasto In his mouth. But it wasn't, and hence he needed HunyadI, Red Raven Splits and Cascarots next day. Then, after a whilo tho poison fastened on him and ho foil away entirely. So I say, first compel tho sale oi puro liquors. Then, if men want to drink, tho bad effect will bo lessoned. Next, limit tho quantity to bo sold to tho individual. When ho shows signs of exhilaration let him bo cut off, for he has attained his object. Fix certain cer-tain hours for tho sale and consumption consump-tion of liquor and observo thorn. There Is no uso of a drink shop keeping open after 8 o'clock in tho evening or opening open-ing up before 9 in tho morning. ir government runs tho saloon, so much tho better, but In any ovont permit no person to buy enough to got drunk as wo understand drunkenness not as tho Pennsylvania courts Interpret It and whoro a man demonstrates by past conduct his unfitness for drinking re-fuso re-fuso him ontiroly. If that is done' tho effect will bo benofichl. Had tho wrltor his way tho salo of liquor would bo conducted differently than now, for there would b0 no saloons for tho exclusive ex-clusive sale of liquor at all, but realiz-Ing realiz-Ing that thero aro many thousands of people who would not agree with him ho refrains from advancing them until un-til such 'times as some experiments in other localities have demonstrated the accuracy of his contentions. |