Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1879-02-13
SIX Miles of saloons.

columns to articles portraying the city in
Is various features of those things which
up metropolis.
The last Issue. of the kind is termed |
''Cincinnati as it Is,'' and is devoted to |
statistics of beer and other liquors, made
mp from exact data, with the result for
the county of Hamilton, taken from the
books Of the Internal revenue collector,
where it Is found there are 3.24s places
where liquors are sold at retail in the
county, making &c safe to say that the
number in the city itself is $500. After
going on to show from the record of pre-
duetion, import and export that the ac-
tua1 consumption of beer, last year, in
Cincinnati was. 3s3, ,s23 barrels, the de-
duction is as follows: s'The number of
glasses drawn from barrel ranges from
$50 to 450, an average of 400. Reducing
the whole to glasses and we have, as re-
suit, 153, 500 200 glasses of beer consumed
annually In this country. Calculating
this at five cents per glass, which is the
retail price, and its value is 81 7,678, AGO.
That is to say. near eight million dollars
is paid in cash annually by those who
drink beer within this county. Some al
lowance is to be made for beer carried
Into the adjacent country in wagons, of
which no account is kept, and also of the
free beer served to employees in brewer
les. 1t is safe, however, to put the an
nual cash expenditures at seven million
dollars.
ssPutfing the population of Cincinnati
at 300 900. and estimating six persons to
a family, that would give $4,000 families,
and the expenditure for beer would aver
age $40 for each family, or $23. 20 per cap
| ita. This may seem an extravagant cal
culation, but there are the figures. 1t is
not uncommon for workmen to spend 80
cents per day for beer.
'sIt will also be said that beer takes the
place of solid food to some extent; and a
certain class of people regard it as essen
tial to solid comfort and enjoyment as
bread, or meat, or clothing, beyond Ger.
tain limit. These are questions, however,
the discussion of which is foreign to our
present purpose.
ssFollowing up wine and distilled spir-
it's, the recapitalation gives:
Cost Of beer consumed. s., 900 oot
Grand total. $9,oS8,O ,OO
'sEstimating the population as already
stated, at 300, 900, the amount per capits
which includes men, women and chill.
dren, the multitude who do not drink az
we'll as the multitude who do drink ,spen
for liquors of all kinds is $30.12 per capita
or $50 per family, counting six persons
to family"
Before arriving at the application, W.
must quote another item, which is: Gal
lowing ten feet of ground to each saloon
in the county, they would, if placed in {
row. extend a distance of 80, ,4s0 feet, Of
over six miles. Estimating that three
adults are employed on an average il
each saloon, it would give an aggregat,
If 7,500 in the city, and over 8 900 in thu
county. These. probably represent q, ,OOt
persons who depend upon the profit of sa
looms for living. The total voting pop
ulation OF the county is SO, 600; of thes
3 one-eighth are engaged in the retail liq
uor business directly. Estimating tn
value of property used for saloon pur
poses at $50 per front foot, including i'm
provements, and we have a total valus
tion for the county of 81, ,5e0, 900. TIL
actual value is probably greatly in exces
5 of that"
: Necessarily emitting many facts of in
: terest, the application made by the Gaset
:. is as follows: "The figures we have give
. prove this much, among other things
The constitution says the legislature sha,
not license the sale of Intoxicating liquors
: but it may provide against the evils rt
-sulting from the traffic. Well, it has NJ
licensed, and in spite of all the feeble e
forts, including law and moral suaiso1
,e we have, within circuit of three mile
e. the Courthouse being the center, saloor
: enough, If placed in a line, to reach 81
r miles, giving to each house only ten fe
'e of ground. There is, besides, a polite
Of power that can rule, and virtually do
+ T. rule the city government. It is powe
ID too, not counting the manufacturing il
a : terests behind it, and in sympathy wit
E. it, that commands retail business of SO
600, 900 year. tits power, too. that
led to disrespect law, and always liable
suffer if it permits its influence over IL
civil authorities to slip from its hands,
As a consequence there is hardly wal
in the city in which a saloon-keeper, WI
e. sells liquors contrary to law, and is n
e[ taxed at all, could not defeat the large
taxpayer for municipal office.
"Suppose saloon-keepers were tax
!. and brought from outside the law to wit
in the limits, what would be the resu!
in A large number ofthe worst places wou
Iny be wiped out, and the rest would be re
en- ulated, and would at the same time CO
h. tribute $500, 200 per annum in taxes. A
u average of 5000 per year would be borl
by saloon-keepers. That would suppre
;. one-third of them, and under judicio
cd license system the other two-thirds cou
ry be properly controlled.
. "But having presented the facts '
3. have only to ask our citizens what tn,
he propose to do about it,