The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-10-02
DRUNKEN WOMEN,
The Terrible Evils Which They Are Bring
ing Upon Their Children in England.

The Terrible Evils Which They Are Bring
ing Upon Their Children in England.
One of the most Objectionable forms
of the drinking custom in England is
the drunkenness of women. 1t has to
a considerable extent grown out of the
sale of spirituous liquors in the groceries.
There are husbands in England who
are to-day nearly driven crazy by
reason of the habit of drinking, into
which their wives have fallen.
One gentleman told me that some
five or six men had come to him quite
lately and, manifesting the greatest
distress, asked him for advice. Our
Canadian ladies visiting some of the
towns in England have been shocked,
in passing some of the public houses,
to see women at the bar drinking with
the men, or hanging in groups about
the door, apparently waiting for an
invitation to drink. The Christian
women are beginning to move in this
matter. They are beginning to see the
enormity of the evil | had the honor
of dining with and spending a few
hours at the residence of Mrs. Lucas,
sister to John Bright She is now the
president of the Worlds Women
Christian Temperance Union, and her
sentiments, her consistent example as
a total abstainer and her energy in the
promotion of the temperance cause are
arousing others of the higher classes of
English women to combined action
against this foe to their sex, and to
humanity in general.
The sad effects of this phase of drink
ing in England is not seen on the wom-
en- themselves merely, but on their
miserable offspring. | had, myself,
noticed this, but might not have vent
ured to speak of it here, if my observa-
ton had not been confirmed by that of
others who mentioned it without any
suggestion from me. | was, on this
account, all the more impressed with
this phase of the evil. From what |
saw myself, and from what | learned
through the oberServation of residents
in England, | am prepared to believe
that there are thousands of poor little
wretches now in their cradles, or Just
growing up toward maturity, who are
mere wrecks, physically, because of
this habit on the part of their mother.
,or worse, of both their parents. l tried
to expostulate with one who told me
that she could not get on without her
beer. She had such an "all-gone"
sort of feeling every day, which appar-
emily nothing Gas she thought) could
meet or reetify but beer, while by her
side sat a little puny creature, whose
legs and arms were not larger than the
big finger of full-grown man, yet the
child was five or six years old. Such
specimens can be produced by the
dozen in almost any of the streets of
Liverpool or London, and other places
where the public houses alternate with
the dwellings of the working classes.
Macaulay must have had some such
result as this of the liquor traffic in his
mind when he suggested the possibili-
ty of the " New Zealander one day sit
ting on London bridge viewing the
ruins of st. Paul's." The physical de-
generation of the people through evil
social habits must necessarily be fol-
| lowed by national loss, national decay,
national ruin. Those who uphold the
liquor traffic are not the friends but the
enemies of their country and their
race. 1t is cause for joy that there
always have been faithful few who
have opposed, and still larger number
now opposing with all their might this
great evil.-D. T. Lucas, in Montreal
| Witness.