518 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE- IV 



and, though I greatly dislike that sort of guzzling, I never 

 saw anything of the beastly, crazy, drunken exhibitions 

 which are so common on Independence Day and county- 

 fair day in many American towns where total abstinence is 

 loudly preached and ostensibly practised. Least of all do 

 I admire the beer-swilling propensities of the German stu 

 dents, and still I must confess that I have never seen any 

 thing so wild, wicked, outrageous, and destructive to soul 

 and body as the drinking of distilled liquors at bars 

 which, in my student days, I saw among American stu 

 dents. But I make haste to say that within the last twenty 

 or thirty years American students have improved im 

 mensely in this respect. Athletics and greater interest in 

 study, caused by the substitution of the students own 

 aims and tastes for the old cast-iron curriculum, are doubt 

 less the main reasons for this improvement. 1 



Yet, in spite of this redeeming thing, the fact remains 

 that one of the greatest curses of American life is tlie 

 dram-drinking of distilled liquors at bars ; and one key of 

 the whole misery is the American habit of &quot;treating,&quot; a 

 habit unknown in other countries. For example, in Amer 

 ica, if Tom, Dick, and Harry happen to meet at a hotel, 

 or in the street, to discuss politics or business, Tom in 

 vites Dick and Harry to drink with him, which, in ac 

 cordance with the code existing among large classes of 

 our fellow-citizens, Dick and Harry feel bound to do. 

 After a little more talk Dick invites Harry and Tom to 

 drink; they feel obliged to accept; and finally Harry in 

 vites Tom and Dick, with like result; so that these three 

 men have poured down their throats several glasses of 

 burning stimulants, perhaps in the morning, perhaps just 

 before the midday meal, or at some other especially un 

 suitable time, with results more or less injurious to each 

 of them, physically and morally. 



The European, more sensible, takes with his dinner, 

 as a rule, a glass or two of wine or beer, and is little, if 



1 Further reasons for this improvement I have endeavored to give 

 more in detail elsewhere. 



