of
drunkenness instead of whisky is that the drinker of it doesn't want to
get drunk, at least she doesn't know that she wants to get drunk. I use
the feminine pronoun advisedly, because the remedies of this class are
largely supported by women. Several of the others of these well-known
proprietary medicines depend for their popularity chiefly on their
alcohol. One celery compound relieves depression and lack of vitality on
the same principle that a cocktail does, and with the same necessity for
repetition. I know an estimable lady from the Middle West who visited
her dissipated brother in New York--dissipated from her point of view,
because she was a pillar of the W. C. T. U., and he frequently took a
cocktail before dinner and came back with it on his breath, whereon she
would weep over him as one lost to hope. One day, in a mood of brutal
exasperation, when he had not had his drink and was able to discern the
flavor of her grief, he turned on her: 'I'll tell you what's the matter
with you,' he said, 'You're drunk--maudlin drunk!'

"She promptly and properly went into hysterics. The physician who
attended diagnosed the case more politely, but to the same effect, and
ascertained that she had consumed something like half a bottle of a
certain swamp root that afternoon. Now, swamp root is a very creditable
'booze,' but much weaker in alcohol than most of its class. The brother
was greatly amused until he discovered, to his alarm, that his drink
abhorring sister couldn't get along without her patent medicine bottle!
She was in a fair way, quite innocently, of becoming a drunkard."

Another famous stomach bitters was found to contain, according to an
official State analysis, 44 per cent. of alcohol; another mixture
contained 20 per cent. of alcohol; a certain blood bitters contained 25
per cent. of alcohol; a sarsaparilla 26 per cent.; a celery compound 21
per cent.; the malt whiskey is in this class and is a particularly
obnoxious fraud, for it pretends to be a medicine and to relieve all
kinds of lung and throat disease. It is especially favored by temperance
people because in this way they get their "grog" in the guise of a
medicine. It is sold in many places across the bar of saloons at 15
cents per drink, as many other brands of rye and Bourbon whisky are
sold.

Think of treating any disease of the stomach with the famous stomach
bitters containing 44 per cent. of alcohol,--just 6 per cent. less than
the amount of