DKLNKING HABITS.

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lobster " disagree with them; whilst your two-and-three-bottlemen can sit tili morning, and even then walk home withoutdeviating from the cracks in the pavement.

So with Continental nations there is less drunkenness thanwith us, simply because the people abroad are more given todrinking than our own countrymen; for, let us explain it as wemay, still the fact exists that the Germans drink four times asmuch as we, and yet appear less drunken. Those who know thehabits of the French, know well that "petits verres " are tippledat the cafis, the cabarets, and the wine-shops, at short and re-gulär intervals, continually throughout the day, from the morn-ing goüte down to the nocturnal bonnet de nuit. In Holland,the English chaplain at one of the principal Dutch towns assuredus that the same series of drams is indulged in, the peopledodging into the nearest " wijn huis" like bees in and out ahive, all the day long; whilst in Germany the " Gasthauser"" Weinwirthschafts" and " Restaurations" are as regularly andfrequently visited by the "Leute.''''

At the " Specerei " (grocer's), over which our rooms weresituate, and which, being close to the theatre and the parade-ground, was a place of populär resort, we had ample oppor-tunities for witnessing the drinking-habits of the Rhenish race.From the taking down of the shutters to the putting of themup, the people kept dropping in as fast as at a pawnbrokers' ona Saturday night.

'' Guten Morgen ! Ich hätte gerne ein Schnäppschen " (literally,I would fain have a little snatch), one would say as he ap-proached the counter. " Was für Schnäppschen ? " (A snatchof what ?) the mistress of the shop would inquire. " Siekennen mir als etwas Pfeffermünze gäben" (You can give mesome peppermint), was generally the answer—for this seemedto be the favourite liquor.

Others would exclaim as they entered, " Ich wünsche ein

VOL. II. I