Moustache Monday: Low Points

“Having lost most of his money in pork futures, Brownlee turned once again to his favorite mistress, the emerald harlot of Paris: absinthe. It was not surprising to find him in one of Tirana’s many drinking parlors, his moustache unkempt, his trousers damp. It would be some time before he emerged from his stupor and by that time most critics agreed that his best plays were, alas, firmly behind him. Certainly no one could fault his enthusiasm for his newly rediscovered sobriety, but one had to question the new, Brechtian influences found in the abysmal March of Pygmies with its all midget cast and use of livestock.”

Waechter, Ewald. The Life and Times of John Brownlee: Being a Record of Horrid Practices and Terrible Excesses As Catalogued In His Many Letters To His Mother and Friends. Vol. 6, 1898-1930 Berlin: Barth Brüder, 1963.

absinthe drinkers [Vintage Photo]