DRUNKENNESS IN FRANCE

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Jan 20, 1904

DRUNKENNESS IN FRANCE.

THE fact that a combined meeting of the four chief temperance societies of France, presided over by M. Casimir-Perier, was held recently in Paris, is significant of the growth of temperance sentiment in that country, where the magnitude of the evil of strong drink is becoming apparent to an increasingly large number of thinking Frenchmen. Frenchmen have always prided themselves on their ability to drink with “moderation,” but statistics show that the worst forms of inebriety are now prevailing among them to an alarming extent. Absinth has its votaries or victims in multitudes who throng the boulevards, while cheap brandy, which is nothing else than liquid madness, has made a terrific record for destruction among the laboring classes. French caricature, with its deadly wit, which is always a danger-signal, has been busy with the foibles and debauches of the devotees of drink, while the prison authorities have seriously taken up the work of providing lecture courses to convicts on the evil effects of alcohol. The temperance sentiment which is being awakened in France is organizing itself on the broadest lines, Catholic and Protestant clergy, army surgeons, and civilian reformers, sharing the burden of the work of investigating the alcohol evil, and uniting their endeavors with a view to presenting an authoritative report which, it is hoped, will furnish the basis for aggressive action in behalf of temperance.—Zion’s Herald.