The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1880-10-26
"a II
D3sER DRfNfTT1 nv ENGLAND.
A Habit which has Become Second yNatur.


a Habit which has Become Second Mature
!, HDSstO the Laboring Glass. -
| )Riohard Grant White in Atlantic Monthly
The Englishlnal, and particularly the
Englishman Of the laboririg class, III
Wooded to his boor. Ho feels that It is
q great comfort and one Or the vory
few enjoymeats, Of his life. And not
only is the chocolate room or any 9th
or like contrivancs "slow," but there
is about 1t an implication that he is TAX
en- In hand and managed by his bctters,
like child, which not unnaturally re,
sonts. Rightly or wrongly, ho feels
moro ashamed Of being treated this
way than he does Of being drunk once
Week----once, however, being hero q
WHO signifioation. Forin those cnses
'tho same drunk'' often extends from
from Saturday night to Monday, and
not lilfreqtently into Tuesday, The
result OF this habit, which may almost
10 called custom, is doplorablo and
socially injurious to Il degree of which
we Ill america havoa a very imperfect
tdoa. The beor Of England is not like
tho light German beer, which has come
SO much into vogue here Of late years,
under the name Of .slagcr," and OF
which man Of any stability Of brain
aud knee might drink enough to swim
il, without fcoling any other effect
than that Of unpleasant distention. It
is heady, strongly narcotic and apnar-
emily not exhilarating, but depressing.
Drunk in large quantities, after short
period OF cxcite1nont it dulls tho brain
and fills tho drinkers whole bulk will,
liquid stupefaction. He becomes not
Intoxicated, but besotted. Not only
4aboling men and mcn who ought to
labor, but do, give themselves up to
this debasing habit Of 4oor-tlrunken.
ness through two or three days of tho
week, but skilled artisans, men whose
work il Of kind and of ali excellence
which Is worthy of respect and admi-
ration. was moro than once told in
regard TO 'an artisan of this class, q
man whose work was always in de-
'mand ut tho highest price, and who
could with ease have kept himself and
ms family in perfect comfort and have
laid up money, that lie would not
WORK for any man or ut any price
more than four days in the week.
Blue Monday is n recognized "institu-
tion" IN England; and, rs have inti-
mated, the blueness Of 1t extends not
mtrcqucntly into Tuesday, and this
among tho very best ofskillcd artisans.
One book-binder told me that his two
best men, "hnishcrs," to whom he gavc
his finest work In perfect confluence
that it would be done uncXccptioliably
both III workmanship and stVlc, never
made any "timo"-that is, never got
really at work before Wednesday,.
Like stories were told Eio of other
equally accomplished workmen. This
is not only ruinous to the men and to
their families, but tho aggrrguto i'll
dustrial loss to England must bc very
great. And this steady bcsottcd
drunkenness seems to be at the bottom
OF the distress and most OF the crime of
England. a clergyman whose work
lays much among the laboring classes,
told me that he felt utterly powcrlcss
before this vice, which was a constant
quantity in the problem that he was
called upon to solve. | knew q lady
who was district visitor in q suburb
OF London, one Of those ministerinp
angels who In England, more, it seoms
to me, than in any other country in
tho world, give themselves up to the
work Of helping and bcttcring the
most wrctchcd and degraded Of their
kind, and who carry Christian love
and purity and grace into deus Of filth
and sin and suffering WHICH, if they did
not SEQ them, would be beyond tllcir
chastc imaginations and / asked her
one day ifsho met with any encourage
mont, and if she thoAght she had been
able to DO much roal good. With n
sad. sweet smile sho nnsw cred:
every little. The condition Of these
people seems hopeless. All that we
can 90 is to help them from time to
time; and we find them always where
we left them, or, ifpossible, yet lower,
more degraded, more wretched. And
at the bottom of it all is drunkenness.
The mon arc always moro or less
drunk. and tho women are almost as
bad. They earn q little money and
then get drunk. Husband aud. wife
get drunk together; they quarrel; they
quarrel; they fight; and tho children
grow up with this before them. They
nre never really quito sober unless
they are starving or i'll. What cnn be
done for such people? How can they
or their condition be made bettcr?'
The tears gushcd from her eyes as he
spoke. knew that il was so. My
own observation, very small and OIL
little worth rs compared with hers,
had yet shown me this. And 1 was
struck with horror at tho bcsotted con-
dition of SO many of the womcn-wo-
men who were bearing children every
year, and sucking them, and who
seemed to me littlo better than four
human stills through which the ac-
cursed liquor with which they were
soaked filtered drop by drop into tho
drunkards at their breast. TO these
children drunkenness comes uncon-
sciously, like their mother tongue.
They cannot remember time when it
was new to them. They come out of
the cloud-land Of infancy with the i'm
preston that drunkenness is one of
tho normal conditions of man, like
hunger or like sleep. Punishment
for mere drunkenness, nnacconipanicd
by violence nuSf spnm stranoe tO