Daily Los Angeles herald., 1880-10-09
&as SugsIes gerald.
WHISKY
M Bold North Gets Away with More Thar
the South.

F'|| Wv Rseshs
One rum shop for every 280 In.
hAbitants Ia the sober and moral
State Of Massachusetts! One for
every 220 In Connecticut, that pro.
verbal land of steady habits, and
one for every 200 In that paradise
of learning and true goodness, the
6tate Of Ohio! Verify, the demon
seems to be In no immediate dam
Rsr Of being exercised just yet.
These figures are fromIthe Internal
Revenue returns at Washington,
and are not likely to err on the
slde OF exaggeration. Altogether
there are 1861 retail and 1882
Wholesale liquor dealers in the
United States, besides 1858 recti-
1lers. This means that there are
more than q quarter OF q million OF
people directly engaged In this
traf1lc. 1t is o pretty large army
for the temperance folks to cope
With.
These statistics disclose some Gu
rlous facts. Figures have notori-
ously no respect for theories. Many
= time and oft have they scattered
fond delusions to the winds. Rural
communities we're believed to be
more moral than the dwellers In
cities, until somebody undertook to
collect and tabulate the number OF
1llegitimate births, when the too
easy virtue OF pastoral simplicity
became readily apparent. So coun-
try youths are reputed to make
more hardy soldiers than those
who come from the more unhealthy
towns. The late civil war showed
the fallacy of that as OF several
other things. The Irish labored for
Z long time under
THE STIGMA OF CONSUMING MORE
WHISKY
Than any other people, until 1t was
shown that the Puritanical, church,
going, hard-headed, Sabbath-ob-
serving Scotchman drank thrice as
much as PADDY. And now 1t ap-
pears that our Southern brethren
have also suffered grievous wrong
while we here at the North have
been taking credit for virtue we
do not have.
In what part of the Union Is
there the most drunkenness? Ev.
cry schoolboy will answer "At the
South; in Georgia and Texas and
Alabama" Wrong, entirely
wrong, If the number of retail
liquor dealers is an index to the
comparative sobriety Of a
people. There are two rum
shops for every man, woman
and child in Massachusetts for
every one In these three States, and
yet they together are, IL anything
more thickly studded with them
than the rest of the late Confeder-
aCy. Texas has one gin-mill for
every $50 inhabitants; Georgia has
one for every 500 Inhabitants and
Alabama one for every 800. the
same as South Carolina, Arkansas,
Mississippi aud Virginia, while In
North Carolina there IL but ono tc
every 800, and even in the Bourbon
county itself there is only one fol
every 450 persons. Contrast these
figures with those of the Northern
States. Here In New York
WE HAVE ONE DARKROOM FOB
EVERY TWO HUNDRED INHABI
TANTs,
The same as in Ohio, and this
seems to be about the average here
Abouts, the proportion in PenDsyl'
vania. New Jersey, Delaware,
Maryland and Rhode Island. like
that of Connecticut, varying very
little from this. Maine and Ver-
mont make Il better showing, the
former having but one for every
1000 OF her population and the
other one for every $50. The nat
urAl inclinations of the people are,
however, interfered with in these
two communities to such an extent
~ to deprive the statistics of all
value.
Take those States Of New Eng.
land, then where the predilectiODi
OF the people have something like
fair play, and the Middle and as
many Of the Western States as you
like and compare them with the
Southern States. The result will
show nearly three rum shops in the
former for every one in the latter.
We In New York who have to SET
up the drinks for the entire conti-
nent tome time or other, need
not be ashamed to acknowledge the
fact, but it is q very hard dose for
the great moral region to
the northeast of us. They
have the consolation, such
such as 1t is, that they are not
quite 80 bad as California, where
there is one saloon for every one
hundred inhabitants, and they
may also urge that one Southern
drink is equal in potency to two
Northern ones, and that the whis-
Nv here being so much purer is 30
much more innocuous, and there.
fore not near 80 sinful In taking.
But opinions will differ on this
point, and until experts have ex-
Amined and reported upon the
question the weight of evidence
will be that there Is more whisky
drank 10 the good North than In
the wicked South.-N. Y. Graphic.