Omaha daily bee., 1897-02-22
THE THIRST OF NEW York.
Enormous Quantities of various Bcv-
ernges Consumed Daily.

Enormous Quantities of Various Ucy-
ernEes Consumed Daily.
A river OF 5000, 600 mouths that flows 556
gallons each minute, or 5000 gallons
daily, is running down the threats OF the
inhabitants Of Greater New York. That is
the amount OF beverage consumed each day,
according to the New York Herald. II
all the fluid were formed together 1t would
occupy 107, 900 cubic feet OF space. weigh g.
100000 pounds, and would make a good
load for an ocean freighter $50 feet long.
These figures are as correct as they are
astounding. for they come from the best
statistical sources.
In this river Is included all Of the various
liquids that find their way-with willing as
sistance-into the stomachs OF New Workers,
including water, which cannot be sepa-
rated from the rest, as 1t is a necessary part
of all. 1t enters into a. the spirituous and
malt liquors, is the vehicle for tea, coffee
and cocoa, and is nearly all Of carbonated
drinks.
Excepting water in its pure state, which
is one-half Of the entire consumption, we
find beer at the head of the list. We arc
told by Germans that it is the greatest
civilizing drink, and we know that Its con-
sumption is increasing beyond the increase
Of population. In Greater New York the an
nual sale OF beer ten years ago was 5~,OOO,OJO
barrels. Now it is 1000, 900.
OF this vast quantity of beer I 1000 gal
Ions are consumed at home each day. or
more than a million and a half of glasses,
varying from the ponies that hold about
a gill, up to the "sChooners,' that carry
almost a quart. This quantity Of beer
makes a. bulk of 2S.340 cubic feet. II we
should build a barrel to hold Greater New
York's one days supply Of beer and place
II beside the obelisk for comparison, it
would be found to be as tall and about
three times its mean diameter. a large
barrel to be emptied by a community each
day, but the community is equal to the
task.
When we come to the beverage milk we
must have a separate can so as not to have
the portion that We drink mixed with that
which we eat, for we are now considering
only drinkables. A large quantity OF the
milk consumed goes into solid foods, like
butter and cheese, and into general cooking,
besides being frozen into the temporarily
solid luxury, ice cream.
But outside of this lao, 900 gallons are
utilized each day as a drink, either clear
or mixed with other beverages. Our little
people, not yet educated to the use of beer,
are the principal consumers Of these gal
Ions, which measure Is, 700 cubic feet.
If we follow the example set by the beer
barrel and make a can for our milk and
place it beside Castle Garden it will be
thirty feet in diameter and its top will
Then there is the whisky and kindred
spirits.
If we make a demijohn for our daily sup
ply of straight and fancy alcoholic drinks
it must have a contents of 936 cubic feet,
which will hold 1000 gallons. This Is the
amount consumed each day in the year IN
Greater New York.
This supposed demijohn will be ten feet
in diameter and thirty feet high. If placed
beside the Herald building it's cork would
be but a little below the cornice.
If, to balance this, we place a siphon on
tho nllar side pf the hnl1inp tn hold the
&C, 900 gallons Of carbonated waters that are
| consumed daily, we will have a bottle with
a contents of 5000 cubic feet, which will
measure fifteen feet in diameter and stand
with its top as high as the roof, or nifty feet
above the ground.
Greater New York also drinks wine and
corks are popping at the rate OF about twenty
five a minute from the various sized bottles.
If these bottles were all quarts there would
be 16, 600 Of them and their contents would
measure 534 cubic feet.
If one wine glasa is made to hold all this
it must be thirty feet deep and fourteen feet
in diameter. There is no more fitting way
to emphasize the size of this glass than by
| placing it in the appraised hand of Liberty
and thus change her from a torch bearer
lighting the world to a cup bearer about to
drink to the health of the world.
Greater New York drinks coffee, tea and
cocoa to the extent Of &c 500 pounds daily.
The coffee weighs 1000 pounds and a
canister to hold it would have to be twelve
feet high and eight feet in diameter. If this
canister was loaded on a wagon it would re-
quire the strength of twelve good horses to
haul it over the most favorable street in
New York.
As to the tea, we daily consume 25, 600
pounds of it, or the contents of 27S tea
chests. These would make a most delightful
| pyramid to the eyes of John Chinaman if
piled with the eighty-one chests in the bot
tom layer, then narrowing the width of one
chest on each succeeding layer until the top
layer of nine chests was reached. This pyra-
mid would be fifteen feet square at the base
and eleven and a half feet high.
The daily cocoa can for Greater New York
would contain one cubic yard, for we con-
sumo as a beverage 1,500 pounds each day.
Then there is as much more used in manu-
facture.
AS the excise law provides certain regula-
tons for places where intoxicating liquors
are sold, We get some interesting figures
from the records.
There are IS 900 licensed buildings where
liquors are sold in Greater New York, and
if these buildings were placed side by side
they would reach a distance of 1913 miles, or
six times around Manhattan Island.
These buildings all together contain 1,640,-
900, 900 cubic feet; so, if they were maased
into a single cube it would measure 1,1SO
feet on each side and be 260 times as large
as Madison Square Garden.