AS COMMISSIONER AT PARIS-1878 521 



which, with cheerful open fireplaces, games of various 

 sorts, good coffee and tea, and, if necessary, light beer 

 and wine, shall be more attractive than the "saloons" 

 and ' ' dives ' ' which are doing our country such vast harm. 



My advice to all men is to drink nothing but water. 

 That is certainly the wisest way for nine men out of ten, 

 and probably for all ten. Indeed, one reason why 

 the great body of our people accomplish so much more in 

 a given time than those of any other country, and why the 

 average American working-man "catches on" and "gits 

 thar" more certainly and quickly than a man of the same 

 sort in any other country (and careful comparison be- 

 tween various other countries and our own has shown that 

 this is the case), is that a much larger proportion of our 

 people do not stupefy themselves with stimulants. 



In what I have said above I have had in view the prob- 

 lem as it really stands: namely, the existence of a very 

 large number of people who will have stimulants of 

 some kind. In such cases common sense would seem to 

 dictate that, in the case of those who persist in using dis- 

 tilled liquors, something ought to be done to substitute 

 those which are pure for those which are absolutely poi- 

 sonous and maddening; and, in the case of those who 

 merely seek a mild stimulant, to substitute for distilled 

 liquors light fermented beverages; and, in the case of 

 those who seek merely recreation after toil, to substitute 

 for beverages which contain alcohol, light beverages like 

 coffee, tea, and chocolate. 



This is a long digression, but liberavi animam meam, 

 and now I return to my main subject. 



The American commissioners were treated with great 

 kindness by the French authorities. There were exceed- 

 ingly interesting receptions by various ministers, and at 

 these one met the men best worth knowing in France: 

 the men famous in science, literature, and art, who redeem 

 France from the disgrace heaped upon her by the wretched 

 creatures who most noisily represent her through sensa- 

 tional newspapers. 



