The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1876-03-09

valuable citizens. That would be the
view of an economist but thick headed
though warm hearted enthusiast, inquir-
ing further into the benefits conferred on
society by this great firm, would have
boldly said that they were dearly bought.
This splendid subscription to revenue
represented a manufacture Of two mill
ions OF gallons per annum of spirits above
proof, which would produce dare not
say how many hundreds of thousands OF
gallons of nutty brandy and cream gin.
Were the enthusiast aforesaid, as he
is sure to do, to follow the thousands of
hogsheads or the millions of gorgeously
bedizened and sparkling bottles turned
out by this firm to their destinations by
land and sea, and down to the ultimate
stomach Of that notorious Unsuitable, the
consumer he might, nay, would-re-
turn with demonstration nothing could
shake, that this million gained to the
revenue had cost the country, in wasted
wages, lost means, bankruptcies, shipping
disasters, railway accidents, wrecked
lives, murders, assaults, crimes unmen-
tionable and innumerable, and general
decentralization, with their resulting ex-
penses, as good as ten or twenty millions
sterling. In truth, every year Messrs.
Bighorne and Company, for their own
profit, turned out product which did as
much damage in the world as many a
plague or revolution. state this as a
serious proposition based upon facts, and
unexaggerated.
That was fact to which Mr.. Big
horne's conscience was alive, but the re-
sponsibility for which it denied That
was a fact which the Chancellor Of her
Majesty's Exchequer knew, but which
he pleaded that. in the peremptory claims
of a revenue-raising patriotism, he could
not afford 20 recognize. That was a fact
patent to every thoughtful member of
the party in Parliament among whom
sat Mr.. Bighorne, but it never lessened
him in their esteem, or choked them at
his brilliant entertainments. That was
fact clear to some hundreds of respecta-
bic, worthy, aristocratic, high-minded
representative gentlemen, who went into
the lobby to establish, confirm, and ex-
tend Mr.. Bighorne's capacity of contrib
utIng to the revenue out of his percent
ages upon drunkenness, death, and crime.
But il was plain to them all that not a
shadow of blame attached to Mr.. Big
horne or to any one of themselves, for
peoples abuse of an article too easily
abused and they consequently referred
the startled reformer to the regenerating
influences of Christianity and culture, and
stood to Mr.. Bighorne as an eminently
rich, humane, conservative, and most
Christian friend, with vested interest
which it would be both "plundering and
blundering" to disturb.
AS for Mr.. Bighorne, he claimed to be
no more chargeable with the conse-
quences of his business than the baker
who sells the loaf that chokes a too
greedy man.
But we must really inquire, How did
this great firm build up and how does it
continue to increase its enormous busi-
ness?
The truth is that the popularity of the
creamy gin" and 'nutty brandy" de-
pends in a very small degree on any in
herent superiority of those spirits. 1t is
true that there is much in maturing.
mixing coloring, and sweetening the
original distillation. but, after all. you
come back to the same white dew, con-
densed and dripping, drop by drop, in
crystal spirit But the two great agen-
cies of Mr.. Bighorne's success-for he
was the head of the firm in more senses
than one-were advertising and agency.
The world was nearly as full Of the at
fractions of Bighornes gin as Of Hollo-
ways pills, and there was not a district
in the metropolis or in any great town
where Mr.. Bighorne's agent in the shape
of a publican ensconced in a gorgeous
gin-shop, did not dispense the two seduc-
tive cordials Let the truth come out,
and let these gentlemen bear the respon-
sibility of il. They are not mere whole
sale producers, who sell their wares, and
can fairly say they are not concerned
whether these go to heal at the hospital
or to destroy in the public house. The
exigencies of trade in which competi-
tion is so keen oblige brewer and distil-
ler, for their lives, to create and push
the business. The ordinary laws of sup
ply and demand are not regarded. The
trade is forced. For example, were it not
for the capital of these vast firms, whose
agents are always on the look out for
chance to acquire new vested interest
in the decentralization of society, who
will believe that Regent Street, West
minister, or Whitechapel Road would be
filled with the expensive establishments
which make them so brilliant and so
damned at night? And what are our
magistrates about that they permit their
brother magistrates. in the horrible ri
valry of this destructive trade, to over
whelm neighborhoods like these with
poverty, crime and sorrow2 The $4,000
$4,000 or 100000 which starts public
house is rarely found by the creature who
stands behind the bar; it comes out Of
the same pockets as the El 900 subscrip-
tions to restorations of cathedrals, new
churches, and to the conversion OF the
Dyak, the Carib or the Iroquois from
naked savagery to the English Bible, the
English coat and hat and English fire.
water.