The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1891-12-16
APPALLING,

The amount of destitution AMI misery
whicl can be traced directly to drunkenness
is appalling From this point of view the
Prohibitionists do not in the least exagger-
ate the facts. In England, for example, the
enormous proportion OF the national earn
ings expended on strong drink is atteste1 by
the imposing contributions to the imperial
exchequer derived from excise duties, and 1T
is certain that by far the greater part OF the
stupendous outlay for drink represents
consumption of alcohol which even the de-
fender of moderate and careful drinking
would admit to be excessive. Hundreds of
millions of dollars which, If invested in the
necessities of lie, would materially promote
the well-being Of the English community,
are wasted every year upon strong drink.
The direct relation of excessive indulgence
in elcohol to crime, AMI especially to crimes
of violence, is notorious fact in medical
jurisprudence. 1t is now about hundred
and seventy years since the parnicious habit
of gin drinking struck root among the
lower classes of English society, and the
social and moral devastation which has been
caused by it is incalculable. The historian
Lecky has remarked that, small as is the
place which the introduction OF
taste for gin occupies in Eng
lish history, it was probably, il
we consider all the consequences that have
flowed from it, the most momentous event
of the eighteenth centurv-imcomparably
more momentous than any incident in the
purely political or military annals of Great
Britain. The medical faculty were not slow
to perceive that with the increased use OF
gin the growth of poverty and disease kept
pace among the poor of the capital. The
Bishop of Gloucester, writing in l152, attIib-
uted to the immoderate and almost univer-
sal drinking of Geneva the fact that there
was not only no safety in the metropolis, but
scarcely even in the country, robbery and
murder had grown so frequent He declared
II Al. l. u. l.. Ri vl..N
they never before were, cruel and inhuman,
their very nature having been changed by
the accursed spirituous drinks, which, TO the
shame of the Government were so easily to
be had and were consumed in such vast
quantities. The Bishop predicted that, il the
habit of immoderate drinking continued, it
would annihiiate the race itself. 1t was we
may remind thereader, the horrible effects
of gin which he beheld everywhere around
him that furnished Hogarth with the revolt
ing details brought out in his picture of
'Gin Lane" Fielding, the novelist, in
pamphlet disclosing the increase Of crime
published about the middle OF the last CEN
tury, declared that gin constituted the
chief sustenance of more than one hun
dred thousand people in the British capital
alone, and said that if the habit of drunken
ness continued for twenty years longer to
increase at the same rate, there would be
few left among the lower classes to drink at
ALL What was true in Fielding's time is
true to-day. 1t is, to be sure. no longer
considered the acme of good breeding to be
able to drink SIX bottles at sitting, as it
was hundred years ago; but the figures re-
| Gently submitted TO Parliament by Mr.
| Goschen showed that there never was such
excessive indulgence in strong drink among
the masses of the English people as there is
now. Nor is the curse Of drunkenness con-
| fined to the British Isles. 1t produces effects
equally widespread and calamitous in Den
/ NJ
treme north of Germany, and in some parts
of the United States The number of places
licensed for the sale of spirituous liquors in
the city of New York alone would astound
those unfamiliar with the statistics, and il
| isnotorious that the unlicensed sale of drink
is carried on upon an enormous scale The
amount ofpoyerty, wretchedness and crime
which in the American metropolis can be
traced Immediately to drunkenness, is almost
beyond belief. .-Once-a- Week.