package Foo;

use DBI;
use Carp;
use strict;

sub new {
   my $class = shift;
   my $self  = {};
   bless $self, $class;

   # THE PROBLEM:
   $self->{'dbh'} = DBI->connect(@_) or carp;

   return $self;
}

1;

##</code><code>##

   # THE SAME PROBLEM:
   eval {
     $self->{'dbh'} = DBI->connect(@_,{RaiseError=>1,PrintError=>0})
   };
   carp $@ if $@;

##</code><code>##

use strict;

use Foo;
use DBI;

print "Comparing wrapper:\n";
my $foo = Foo->new(qw(DBI:mysql:mysql:host user pass));

print "\nComparing DBI:\n";
my $dbh = DBI->connect(qw(DBI:mysql:mysql:host user pass));