The Sunday herald. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1866-1887, 1880-09-12
whisky, North and south.

One rum shop for every $50 inhabitants in
the sober and moral State of Massachusetts
One for every 90 in Connecticut, that
provcrbal land of steady habits, and one
for every 200 in that paradise of learn.
ing AMI true goodness, Ohio! Verify, the
demon seems to he in no immediate danger
of being exercised just yet. These figures
are from the Internal Revenue returns at
Washington, and are not likely TO err on the
side of cXaggcration. Altogether there are
1885, $50 retail and j, 252 wholesale liquor
dealers in the United States, besides ,O53
rcctiIicrs. This means that there are more
than Il quarter of II million of people directly
engaged in this traffic. II is n pretty large
arnS for the temperance folks to cope with.
These statistics disclose some curious facts.
Figures have VIGOROUSLY 10 respect for thco-
rics. Many n time and oft have they scat
tered fond dclusons to the winds. Rural
communities were believed to he more moral
than the jewellers in cities, until somebody
undertook to collect and tabulate the number
of illegitimatc births, when the two easy
virtue of pastoral simplicity became readily
apparent. So country youths were reputcd
to make more hardy soldiers than those who
came from the more unhealthy towns. The
late Civil War showed the fallacy of that as of
several other things. The Irish labored for
more whisky than any other people, until il
was shown that the Puritanical, church,
going, hard-headcd, Sabbath observing
Scotchnan drank thrice as much as Paddy.
And now il appears that our Southern
brethren have also suffered u gricvous 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 Every school-boy will
promptly 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 sobrety of II
people. There are two rum shops for every
man, woman, and child in Massachusetts for
every one i'm these three States, and vet
they together are, il anything, more thcl<ly
Coniederacy. Texas has one gin mill for
every 400 inhabitants; Georgia one for every
500, and Alabama one for every GOO, the
same as South Carolina, Arkansas, Missis-
sippi, and Virginia, while in North Carolina
| there is but one to every 500, and even in
the Bourbon country itself there is only one
for every $50 persons. Contrast these fig
urges with those of the Northern States
Here in New York we have ono bar-roo fol
every 200 inhabitants-the same as in Ohio
and this seems to DO about the average here
abouts, the proportion in Pennsylvania, New
Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Rhode Is
land, like that of Connecticut, varying very
little from this. Maine and Vermont max,
a better showing, the former having but on,
for every 200 of her population, and thu
other one for every $50. The natural incli
nations of the people are, however, interfcref
with in these two nommiiniti.p to such a.
extent as to deprive the statistics of al
value.
Take those States of New England thei
whore tho predictions of the people hay
something like fair play, and the Middle an'
as many of tho Western States as you like
and compare them with the Southern States
The result will show nearly three rum shop
in the former for every one in the latter. w
in New York, who have TO set up the drink
for the entire continent at some time o
other, need not be ashamed to acknowledg
the fact, but il IL Il very hard dose for th
great moral region To the northeast of lis
They have the consolation, such as il is, tina
they are not quite so bad as California wher
there IL one saloon for every 100 inhabitants
and they may also urge that one Souther
drink is equal in potency to two Norther
ones, and that the whisky here being
much purer IL SO much more innocuous, an
, therefore not near SO sinful in tho takin,
But opinions will differ on this point, an
until experts have examined and rcporte
i upon the question the weight of evidence wi
he that there is more whisky drank in Il
, good North than in the wicked South
1 J. Gdphic.