Rhode Island American And Providence Gazette

(From Mackintosh's Anatomy of Drunkenness.]

THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF DRUNKARDS.
Nervous Drunkard.—This is a very harmless and very tiresome personage. Generally of a very weak mind and irritable constitution, he does not become boisterous with mirth, and rarely shows the least glimmering of wit or mental energy. He is talkative, and fond of long-winded stories, which he tells in a drivelling, silly manner. Never warmed into enthusiasm by liquor, he keeps chatting at some ridiculous tale, very much in the way of a garrulous old man in his dotage.

Surly Drunkard.—Some men are not excited to mirth by intoxication. On the contrary, it renders them gloomy and discontented. Even those who in the sober state are sufficiently gay become occasionally thus altered. A great propensity to take offence is characteristic among persons of this temperament. They are suspicious, and very often mischievous. "If at some former period they have had a difference with any of the company, they are sure to revive it, although, probably, it has been long ago cemented on both sides, and even forgotten by the other party. People of this description are very unpleasant companions. They are in general so foul tongued, quarrelsome, and indecent in conversation, that established clubs of drinkers have made it a practice to exclude them from their society.

Choleric Drunkard.—There is a variety of drunkards whom I can only class under the above title. They seem to possess few of the qualities of the other races, and are chiefly distinguished by an uncommon testiness of disposition. They are quick, irritable, and impatient, but withal good at heart, and, when in humour, very pleasant and generous. They are easily put out of temper, but it returns almost immediately. This disposition is very prevalent among Welshmen and Highland lairds. Mountaineers are usually quick tempered; but such men are not the worst or most unpleasant. Sterne is undoubtedly right when he says that more virtue is to be found in warm than in cold dispositions. Commodore Trunnion is a marked example of his temperament; and Captain Fluellen, who compelled the heroic Pistol to eat the leek, is another.

Melancholy Drunkard.—Melancholy, in drunkards, sometimes arises from temperament, but more frequently from habitual intoxication or misfortune. Some men are melancholy by nature, but become highly mirthful when they have drunk a considerable quantity Men of this tone of mind seem to enjoy the bottle more exquisitely than even the sanguineous class. The joyousness which it excites breaks in upon their gloom like sunshine upon darkness. Above all, the sensations, when mirth begins with its magic to charm away care, are inexpressible. Pleasure falls in showers of fragrance upon their souls; they are at peace with themselves and all mankind. Robert Burns was an example of this variety. His melancholy was constitutional, but heightened by misfortune. The bottle commonly dispelled it, and gave rise to the most delightful images; generally, however, it only aggravates the gloom.

Phlegmatic Drunkard.—Persons of this temperament are heavy-rolling machines, and are never roused to mirth by liquor. The vital actions are dull and spiritless—the blood in their veins as sluggish as the river Jordan, and their energies as stagnant as the Dead Sea. They are altogether a negative sort of beings, with passions too inert to lead them to any thing very good or very bad. They are a species of animated clods, but not thoroughly animated—for the vital fire of feeling has got cooled in penetrating their frozen frames. A new Prometheus would be required to breathe into their nostrils humanity. Look at the phlegmatic man—how dead, passionless, and uninspired is the expression of his clammy lips and vacant eye! Speak to him—how cold, slow, and tame is his conversation! The words come forth as if they were drawn from his mouth with a pair of pincers; and the ideas are as frozen as if concealed in the bowels of Lapland. Liquor produces no effect upon his mental powers; or, if it does, it is a smothering one. The whole energies of the drink fall on his almost impassive frame. From the first his drunkenness is stupifying; he is seized with a kind of lethargy, the white of his eyes turn up, he breathes loud and harshly, and sinks into a kind of apoplectic stupor. Yet all this is perfectly harmless, and wears away without leaving any mark behind it. Such persons are very apt to be played upon by their companions. There are few men who, in their younger days, have not assisted in shaving the heads and painting the faces of these lethargic drunkards.

Sanguineous Drunkard.—The sanguine temperament seems to feel most intensely the excitement of the bottle. Persons of this stamp have usually a ruddy complexion, thick neck, small head, and strong muscular fibre. Their intellect is in general mediocre, for great bodily strength and corresponding mental powers are rarely united together. In such people the animal propensities prevail over the moral and intellectual ones. They are prone to combativeness and sensuality, and are either very good natured or extremely quarrelsome. All their passions are keen; like the Irishwomen, they will fight for their friends, or with them, as occasion requires. They are talkative from the beginning and during the confirmed intoxication, perfectly heroes of all drinking companies, the patrons of masonic lodges, the presidents and getters-up of clubs and parties. With them eating and drinking are the grand ends of human life. Look at their eyes, how they sparkle at the sight of wine, and how their lips smack and their teeth water in the neighborhood of a good dinner: they would scent out a banquet in Siberia. When intoxicated their passions are highly excited; the energies of a hundred minds then seem concentrated into one focus. Their mirth, their anger, their love, their folly, are equally intense and unquenchable. Such men cannot conceal their feelings: In drunkenness the veil is removed from them, and their characters stand revealed, as in a glass, to the eye of the beholder. The Roderick Random of Smollett had much of this temperament, blended, however, with more intellect than usually belongs to it.