Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1888-06-14
THE COST OF RUM TO THE
DRINKING MAN.

put "heb ne taxes twenty drluks da
he has paid 81 for run alone-wIlic
multiplied by 365 gives the neat sun
of $3.50 per year. Now, while Their
are many drinkers who as yet do no
indulge 70 the extent of score o
"nips' q day, there are also a larg
number who exceed that-who go a
high as thirty or forty daily. Then
too, it is not necessary that man shall
himself drink the entire twenty, or tn
whole forty, as the case may be- You
drinking man is generally '.jolly tel
low, at least while the fumes of Kun
are in his brain; and he is CONSTANT,
treating as we'll as being treated.
He drops into saloon to get ''sus
tainer," and finds a half-dozen mel
with whom he has drinking acquain
lance. "What will ynu take?" spring,
to his lips instinctively, and he pay.
for seven drinks. And this experience
may be repeated a half-dozen times
each day. The drinking man of con
vival habits always pays for more rum
than he drinks himself, because there
are always lot of hangers-on about
saloons, who are generally out OF
money, but who will drink with any.
body who will stand the expense, and
never return the compliment.
The actual cash outlay of the Rum
habit is SO great that only Millionaire
can stand the financial strain for any
length of time. The man of moderate
means ruins himself, in money sence,
in the indulgence of the appetite for
that which also destroys him physically
and mentally. But what is actually ex-
pended by him for his own drink is by
no means all. The man full of Rum
is careless with his cash, reckless to
expenditures, and totally unfit to
transact bushes of anys kind which re-
quires clear head and cool brain.
The exhileration consequent upon his
rotations makes him feel as though
he::is made of money and he spends it
with a recklessness that certainly must
bring regret to his sober moments.
He does with it the most extrvagant
things, and it goes, he knows not where.
Under the reckless promtings Of the
Rum Devil, the man flush of money is
pretty sure to do one of two things
either visit gambling room and waist
his money, or seek the gilded haunts
of vice and pour it out in the lap of
her whose footsteps, according to Sol
ONION, take hold on hell. -
1t may be set down as fact that
the drinking man can never accumulate
money, unless he is the fortunate po-
SCISSOR of bonanza busin ess that is
as to its profits, beyond any considera-
ton of expenditure, no matter how
rum has burned hole in his
pocket which leaks faster than any Or
binary business or money-making avoca
ton will replenish it. Bankruptcy and
financial ruin are inevitable. The
drinking man is at disadvantage in
his business, because the money which
should be used to push trade or tide
over dull times, or extend his opera
lions into new lines or new territory, is
spent for rum, and in the excuses
which follow in the trail of that de-
non. He becomes more and more in
7olved, and tries retrenchment in all
ways, but the one which is his ruin.
he will lop off all needless expenditure
ave that for rum and its attendant
,ices. But they are like the horse
eech's daughters; they cry "give give"
Until the man becomes desperate; he
Who was reckless incidentally now be-
comes reckless habitually. The crash
f financial ruin comes, and his course
rom that time is direct plunge into
Iabitual drunkenness, poverty and final
y death.
Reader, did you ever consider the
rim factor fact it is-that ninety
'er cent. of the men engaged in legiti-
nate lines of trade in this country fail
ooner or later? And did you ever
race this back to its cause? The
'athway of trade is strewn with wrecks,
nd nine out of ten of them were
aused by Rum. 1t should be plain to
II that, in these days of fierce compe-
ition in trade, the legitimate profits in
ny line of business are to small to [
tand the drain on the pocket imposed {
y the Rum habit. Apparently the
heapest of of all designations, drinking !
J tho most costly. All other extrava- {
ancss have limit; but the thirst for '
.um is limitless. It is like the ocean !
hich receives all the rivers of the !