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 " treating, " 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. 



