The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-07-26
FIGURES ABOUT INTEMPERANCE.

The Fiction Concerning the Sixty Thousand
Men that Annually Die OF Drunkenness.
st. Louis Globe Democrat
Brother Sam Jones, in speaking of the sin of
intemperanee, said:
Oh, the sin of intemperanee! Look at that tramp
tramp, tramp, the boys marching sixty thousand
every year into drunkards graves. And this sixty
thousand this year go down into drunkards graves
the recruiting officers of hell recruiting this army
from boys. That boy of yours, that boy of ours
is marching into the ranks to fill them up, and in less
than ten years from to-day your boy will step down
and out yonder to grave and fill drunkards grave
and drunkards hell
Now, if this means anything more than amere
piece of pointess hortaton, it is grave asser-
ton that &c, 600 men annually die of drunkenness
in the United States Let us see how such
statement will look whep placed in iuXtapositon
with the actual vital statistics of the country, as
exhibited in the last decennial census. The total
population on June |, $780, was 90 1856 1888 and
the total deaths for the year ending that day
were 156, 1873, or average Of 1900 per 900
living OF this large number who ded-large in
fact though small in percentage-there died I'M
der five years of age 302, 624, too young we pre-
sumo to be classed as drunkards, while
the total of deaths under twenty years were
30S 600 exactly. Deduct these latter figures from
the aggregate Of all ages, and the remainder,
constituting nearly all those of what may be
called Of drunkabe age is only 359, 893 of whom
more than half were females. and many
thousands professed temperance people. But
say, for simplicity of calculation, and setting off
the temperance people against the drunken
women, that $780, 900 of these were men, it would
then appear, taking Brother Jones statement as
true that one out of every three men buried an
nually in the United States fills drunkard's
grave Does he himself believe in such an as
founding state of affairs!
But this is no. ALL there remains still another
point to be considered. 1t is fair to presume
that If a man lives to be, say, fifty years old,
that he has passed the period of greatest danger;
that, in other words, incurable and fatal drunk
enness develops and Stays somewhere between
the ages of twenty and fifty. An occasional case
may occur below or beyond these limits, but
common sense will support the view in general
Now, how many deaths of people over fifty Years
old occurred III the year mentioned? Exactly
$50, 157. Suppose these also deducted from the
grand total, and we have precisely 178 1856
deaths between the ages of twenty and fifty
and half these being considered as men, on the
same principle of offsetting unfortunate women
against temperance men, there remain only 80
1868 deaths for the year out of which to people
the 60, 600 drunkards' graves.
The figures look absurd, as they are, when put
to the test of accurate knowledge. There is no
doubt q lamentable amount of drunkenness in
the country, and thousands of promising lives
are annually wrecked. Nay, more; many hun
dreds OF deaths enSue directly and others ind-
rectly, from the excessive use of alcoholic
drinks. The actual number of deaths directly
resulting from this cause in the year above
referred to were: males, 1888; females, 234.
These figures frehtful enough, in all con-
science, and they need no establishment. no
rhetorical tropes or loose eXaggerations to in
tenSlfy their horror, particularly as thew NAV,
perhaps, be fairly doubled in allowing for the
deaths that whisky caused indirectly. Let
Brother Jones picture in his fervid language an
entire congregation as large as that which
listened to the sermon quoted from going down
annually into this pit of destruction and he will
need no stronger argument. But exaggeration
is always weakness.