The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1869-06-01
DnuNKExsEss AND rAUrEHl7n
4 Picture OF Low LIFE Im England.
Correspondence or the CinctnnHu GGzsttC.

| Correspondence or the Cincinnati GCzeHC.
LONDON, May l5.
The INLAY meetings" are in full tide.
There are several every evening. Ihey
can be seen and heard in different nnd
distant parts of the city at the same
hour of tho day or night. But Exeter
Hall Is the focus of them. There are
about $50 of them. They begin in April
and end with the end of June. They
| comprise every species OF philanthropy
known to the world, and every variety
of religious disagreement of which the
Christian human mind Is capable.
should except the Catholics. They
have no May meetings. The nearest
they have come to it was the speech OF
Archbishop Manning ct the ST. James
Hall temperance demonstration in
favor of the perrnissive bill, which,
bv the way, was defeated IN the
House of Commons, this week, by a
1npiority of 1OS. SinGularly enough,
the word "Dermissive" means prohb-
itorv. The bill would prohibit the pub
lie sale OF intoxicating liquors, II
two thirds af the inhabitants of dis
trict should vote to that etfect-nOt in
Guiding women, of course. TAey are
not "inhabitants," and If they were
they would be the last of tho lnhabit-
ants to be interested in or against the
traffic which beats out their brains with
n cudgel in the hands of Il glass of beer.
But if the bill was defeated the cause
behind it was not. In 1861 the majority
was 257, And the Hon. opponents OF
prohi bitiOn all conceded the portentous
magnitude of the spirits trade ana lis
fearful consequences. ana the nome
Secretary promised that some measure
or relief should be- introduced by the
Government next session. believe l
sent YOU an estimate of the number OF
deaths from drunkenness in England.
1t is put at fifty thousand annually.
The estimate sounds incredible; but
while many doubt it, none disprove 1t.
1t has gone the rounds of the press un-
refuted, and along with it have gone
the figures 800. for France. l have
a vague suspicion that ! had $4,000 in
another letter. The estimate Is fifteen
hundred, and the cheap wine temper
ance party have italicised the fact.
TO say the truth, drunkenness in
England has reached such pass thht
the Government is compelled. in self
defense, TO lay hand upon it. Liver
pool bears tho palm, but London is
not far behind. The figures may be be-
lieved, but scenes of which they are
but the skeleton fingers would, II de-
pic;ed in this letter, be dismissed by
the uninitiated as the frolicsOme freak OF
a reportorial imagination. In London
YOU see old men drunk, young men
drunk, little boys drunk, little girls
drunk, women drunk. You see as
midnight comes, the husband dragging
home his drunken wifc, who grabs at
the lamp-post 10 support herself with
one hand, while with the other she al
most drops the babe that lies drugged
with liquor on her breast. You see the
child tugging at the reeling fathers
coat, and begging him, with tears, to
'conne home.n You see the wife rush
wildly into the beer shop, and seize her
husband, who has sunk dead drunk
into the corner, and drag him through
the door. You see drunken man
fell a drunken woman with MS
fist, and hear the crowds demonla-
| cal laugh that greets the act. You near
the same demoniacal laugh when two
| intoxicated and infuriated women dash
upon one another with all their claws
| spread, and soon fall in heap in tue
midst of the throng, pulling handsfuli
| of hair from one anOther's heads ana
| tearing great gashes in one another s
faces, You see kindred throng gath
er round pair of children six years
old 10 encourage them in their Tight
You see all this over ana oyer every
night at the East End. l saw IL al
and more too, last night, as l returned
from May meeting of a society which
has for its end the conversion OF the
| Jews, I heard the shrek OF a Gentle
1 went to the spot. Nothing Out
woman fight" said man and a brother
who stood complacently smoking MS
pipe on the curb. in answer TO my ln>
ouiry. The husband of the under wo-
man lifted her 20 her feet, and the hu.
man tigresses went at it again. They
Grabbed each at the others -long hair
| which had lost its fastening and cover
ed the back. Down they go again and
again: the under woman shrleks win
torture as her sister brute tears her lace
with her nails. .-..
Right in the midst of such scenes are
| resd some OF the "repOrts" OF the mis-
ai0narv in Burmah and the Cahnloal
IsIands. And sometimes the contFas'
hetween the meeting of the SAINTS III
side and that of the sinners Without' III
respect to animation and zeal, Will 81
startle as 10 stop you on the street
Won pass from the drowsy intonatlou
of formal words in "seconding t@pe @
reporL" and "moving thanks 10 M tht
chairman" to the street, Where tne
tumult of the people in all the Vens
mence OF their debauchery astounus
;; the ear and appalls the eye. You nav 1
but to step out of the hearing OF nv M
> painfully routine phraseology OF ~ ~
May meeting declaimer to near tn'
only English eloquence which IS pei
fectly natural and spontaneous lEot;
the lips of the "habitual criminals,
who are just now the horror ana uls
may of English statesmen.
Still, there are societies in LondoI
which deserve attendance upon thel
anniversaries and attention to their re
norts, Some OF them are grand in tn
object they have in view ant
the work they accomplish. Th
Inu.,o5 School Union, for exam