Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-04
BRACING UP ON BEER.
Thirty-Seven Million Glasses Sold in
This District in a Year.
HALF ABILLION SMILES ANNUALLY
Including Whisky and other Beverages Are
Disposed Of
FOURTEEN JIGGERS A MAN PER DAY

The temperance people held their regular
convention a few days ago. Had they
had the figures of this internal revenue
district before them they might have been
inclined either to more emphasis, or to a
conviction that their disinterested efforts in
the cause of total abstinence were not appre-
ciated, and their seed sown on stony ground.
A visit to the revenue office in the Hamil-
ton building shows that during the month
in which the Prohibition party convened,
June, there were 81, ,7S1 ,250 glasses of beer
sold in the Pittsburg district-nearly all Of
it in Pittsburg and Allegheny-or 81 ,25O bar
rels The man in the beer department said
the consumption was keeping pace with the
growth of population, so it would seem
that during the year the combined
crooking of elbows on the beer question
alone amounts to about $50, 200, 900 crooks.
The lowest beer sales for any month in the
year were AZ, 900 barrels.
Millions of Smiles Yearly.
Beer and other malt liquors and wines do
not appear to be displacing the old
time native beverages to any great ex-
tent, as during the month of June
the revenue from whisky was $211, ,773,
against S168,066 for June, 1890.
This is an increase of over 25 per cent. AS
the average drink of whisky is considerably
less than gill. the sales were over 100, ,000,-
600 drinks of whisky, which, added to $780,
600, 900 glasses OF beer, and including wine and
mixed drinks of all kinds, gives in round
numbers 5OO,OO0,O 900 smiles for the year.
This is equal to 1000 drinks per capita per
60 ha inh Of ha ~
not three a day for each-but
as ordinarily the head of the family does
the drinking for all, and as he is one to five,
he, if the supply were equally divided,
would get some IA jiggers every "a hours,
which ought to be enough to keep his clay
fairly moistened. There is another matter
to be taken into consideration; there are at
least several thousand adult males in the
county who do not indulge at all, so the re-
mainder are more abundantly supplied than
the first calculation would indicate.
Prohibitionists' Work Cut Out.
Allowing the average drink of whisky to
cost 10 cents and that of beer cents, the
drink bill of this district amounts to $780,
IA, ,357 Is for the year. In the olden time,
when almost everyone drank ardent spirits,
three jiggers day were considered suffi-
cient for a male adult, except in harvest
time, but our forefathers were not
subject to nervous disorders as we are, and
didn't need so many bracers as we do.
Considering that they organized the whisky
rebellion when the consumption per capita
was only one-fifth as much as it is at pres
ent, can it be thought strange that Prohibi-
tionists find their job Sisyphus task. Be-
sides our bread costs us nearly one-ffth as
much as our tamarack does.
All this is under the Brooks law, and it
looks Just possible that, if our new iron
bound and copper-bottomed substitute is
allowed ito go into effect, drinking will
still further increase, as it all looks much
like, in results, the fencing of buckwheat
straw. The same rate of increase is
noted in Philadelphia where Mr.. Brooks
the author of the famous high-fence law, has
just assumed the position of internal rev.
enue collector. Mr.. Brooks is in position
to get some very practical knowledge on the
subject, which Of nearly all others has
afforded the most work for Legislators dur
ing the past Al years.