THE COST OF A “PLAIN DRUNK.”
The following graduation of penalties for a “plain drunk” seems to indicate that higher civilization is more tolerant of intoxication than benighted communities, or communities so considered:— In this country, $2 and costs. In Persia, 80 lashes on the soles of the feet. In Turkey, the bastinado to a more severe extent. In the three latter instances the extreme penalty is given above. Before the officials give a man up as confirmed in his cups they lecture him. In Persia they put him on the blacklist first, and forbid him the bazaars except in certain hours, and then under police supervision, and also places of amusement and worship. In Turkey the offender receives an admonition, and is fined for the first offense, and the bastinado is applied afterward if the crime be repeated. Among the mountaineers of Albania and Montenegro, drunkenness is regarded as a political offense, and for that reason is considered more serious than if it were a moral one. Among the mountaineers fighting and drinking are not considered to go together, and to be able to fight is the first duty of a citizen. Therefore the drunkard is harshly dealt with. At first they try moral suasion with the festive tippler, but when that fails, and he persists in making the mountain peaks ring to his Montenegrin substitute for “We don’t go home till morning!” he is declared to be a danger and a disgrace to his tribe and his country, and is quietly assassinated by order of the local chief.—The National Advocate.