Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-07-28
LyTEMPERANCE as, 4 CAUSE OF
m CRIME s.


@a CRIME. et
OF all the causes WHICH go to swell the
catalogue OF crime and ill our jails and
prisons, intemperance is the greatest
Rarely is there a great crime committed
that intoxicating liquor is not in some way
an auxiliary. Observation within the linn
its Of The personal knowledge of individuals
viii establish as far as ii goes, that intemp-
erance is the chief cause of crimes, and
the statistics gathered from penitentiaries
agree with what common experience
teaches mast be the general result. The
Board of Public Charities of North Caro-
lima has recently made its annual report in
which is presented important facts bearing
upon this matter In the course of its
duties the Board examined the records of
crime in the country, and the following is
a summary of what they report.
General Pilsbury. warden of the Albany
Peniientiary-who by common, consent
stands at the head Of prison officials in our
couniry-in his annual report for 1870.
just published, gives q tabular statement
Of the conricts received at that Institution
for twenty-five years, and in that gives the
number who claimed to be temperate and
those Incorporate. OF the former there
were 2,7io; of the latter, II 1904 total.
s0,5i4giying 10 per cent and over as
being of incorporate habits. We have al
so before US the annual report for 1868 of
the Inspectors of the several New York
State prisons. where, out of ISL conyicts
then composing the inmates of those pris-
ons, 724 of them are given as temperate,
$50 Is moderate drinkers, while ,275 adj
mitted themselves as being Incorporate.
Over A per cent. admit themselves drunk
ards, and IS per cent. admit they use in
toxicating drinks. In the city prison of
New York, during 1856, of the AZ, 1921 per-
sons who for all grades OF crime were
confined there for shorter or longer terms,
l5,o5l claimed to be of temperate habits,
while 700 admitted their intemperance,
being nearly two-thirds of the whole num-
Der. How many of the other one-third
were really also Incorporate, only those
who have knowledge of the criminal
population Of that great city could safely
guess. In the report of the authorities OF
the Clinton State Prison for that year they
say: '-Of those inezreerz.ed here, care
fol Investigation shows That perhaps seven
eightns Of all have owed their criminal
lneiinations and acts to drunkenness.n In
the penitentiary Of Onondaga county. New
York, out Of 426 convicts, only "a claimed
10 be temperate; over 92 per cent. oil
arunsards---an6 this In a rural district. In
The Monroe country penitentiary, New
lork, out of 6GS convicts 4l2 confessed
themselves Incorporate. and in regard o
the 256 who claimed to be of temporal,
habits the report says: "All who hav,
much intercourse with criminals know how
vague is their idea of temperance unless
they have two or three sprees a week the,
regard themselves as temperate persons
In 1851, of 15S convicts in Connecticut
l34 We're habitual drinkers. Of l6l com
united to the Jail in Providence, Rhod
Island IN 1850, 2s2 were Incorporate, NOR
than three-fourths. Out of 962 conyicts a
the Eastern Penitentiary of Pennsylvania
'f9' nearly 10 per cent. We're drunkards.
The report of the Massachusetts Boar
Oh State Charities, by whom much after
non has been given to the causes An
remedy OF crime, for 1867 saws: ..Of a
the proximate causes or occasions If GRIN,
none Is 50 fruitful as intemperance I'll
returns show from 60 to so Der cent
our criminals are intemperate, and II
proportion OF those whose crimes were q
casioned by intemperance is probab
even greater"
Such are the facts which the North "a
olina report shows. We might add to
the statistics of the Maine State Prise
which agree with the above in tenor. T
perusal of such a record of the evil of
temperance will perhaps give us no n,
information, but it may serve to awak
deeper thought and stimulate more activ
in the promotion of temperance.