The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1890-04-19
TEMPERANCE NOTES.
AN ECONOMIC QUESTION: y
Number of Saloon Dens and What They
Cost Their Patrons.


Cost Their Patrons.
Even those most conversant with the
evils of intemperance hardly estimate
fright their magnitude. In this perlod
Of the worlds history when eco
nomic science is approximating more
closely to absolute accuracy than ever
before, few students of its problems
have Justly measured the waste OF MAJ
terial and production caused by the use
of liquor. In the city of New York WIN
its adjacent suburbs of Brooklyn ana
Jersey City, there lives population oF
at least three millions of souls. In the
metropolis itself 5000 saloons are IL
censed, in Jersey City, 1000, and IN
Brooklyn four times that number.
These are situated in the busiest ana
most accessible portion of the three
cities. That they are centers of con-
tamination, plague spots of wretched-
ness, hot-beds of crime and vice, need
not here be stated. 1t is the economic
question with which we have now to
deal
These $4,000 dens of corruption, more
frequently than otherwise, are situated
upon street corners, so that the average
frontage of each must be more than
twenty-five feet rather than less; how
ever, let this be the basis of calcula-
ton. We then find that if these saloons
were extended in a straight line side by
side and touching each other, tifefsrs
would be row of groggeries stretching
$50, 900 feet, or trifle more than 66H
miles in length. This is just about
two-thirds the distance be tween New
York and Philadelphia.
In Imagination let us take hold of one
end of this row of saloons and draw it up
facing the other end and parallel with it,
We shall then have street slightly
more than thirty-three miles long,
adown which fit shadowy forms, de-
spairing, broken-hearted, gaunt. wasted
and hopeless, the ghosts Of the drunk
ards victims.
But never mind these dumb, gaunt
wraiths, we are dealing not with emo
tions, but with statistics. Let us count
the cost Of these dens to those who sup
port them.
On an average it is estimated that SIS
per day is spent in liquor, in each; a
less amount and they would fail. Con-
sequently, $500 are annually spent in
each saloon for rum, gin, brandy. whis-
ky, absinthe, ale, beer and the wines.
Multiply this by $4,000 and we have an
expenditure of $40, ESQ., 900 every year,
for strong drink alone in the metropolis
and its suburbs. This gives an average
of $25 for every man, woman and child
within the specified area.
That this estimate must be rather
less than above the truth, is evident.
Stylish" saloons, like that at the Hoff-
ian House, do business amounting
daily to hundreds of dollars, instead of
the paltry sum of SIS. Therefore, the
average expenditure for liquor must be
more than S25.
Now, at the least computation, four
fifths of this population, embracing the
majority of women, all the children and
the total abstainers among men, never
patronize the saloon. Therefore the re-
naming non-abstainers, one-ffth in
number, expend on the average $500 an
nually for strong drink. That is just so
much taken out of the necessities of life
and expended on luxuries(?).
Let us suppose this S76,650, 600 APP
piled to the rent, food fuel and clothing
Of the class from which it is chiefly
drawn. What would that mean? 1t
won Id mean the abolition of dire pow
erty. 1t would mean wholesome apart
ments, nourishing food and decent
clothing. Properly spent it would mean
the extinction Of mendicancy and pau
perism. 1t would also mean the rearing
Of children in decency, so that the next
generation would be far above the
present. 1t would mean the beginning
of new era.
Widening our observation from the
metropolis to the entire country we find
that 200, 900 saloons withdraw 400, 900
men from productive industries and abb
sorb outright 100000 600. These stu
pendous facts tell their own story and
draw their own moral.
Let us suppose these millions of dol
lars spent Tor benehcence, for the build
ing of beautiful homes and for the en-
dowment of schools devoted to science,
art, industries, education and religion!
What might not be the status of the
United States could this money only be
withdrawn from the endowment of pau
pers, lunatic asylums, hospitals, prisons
and potter's fields!
What stands in the way of this
change?
What, excepting want of compre-
hension of the first principles of Chris
tianity? What, except that that igno-
rance which is the root of selfshness,
and selfishness which is the root of
greed, and greed which is the root of
politics, still control the civilization of
the nineteenth CONTEMPLATION Signal.