Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1898-04-14
Some Statistics on Nations. Drinking.


The country owes thanks to Sir Courte-
nay Boyle. Most blue-books are dry and
few OF us care to master their contents. Sir
Courteney Boyle has succeeded, however,
in producing one that almost might be de-
scribed as fascinating-the drink statistics
of the civilized world, or, to give it it's
official and rather long-winded title, "The
Production and Consumption Of Alcoholic
Beverages" (wine, beer, spirits).
A study of the paper leads to one con-
clusion namely-that not only will people
drink as long us they can afford to pay for
it, but that they will drink. France pro-
duces ten times as much wine as Germany;
it also exports ten times as much; and yet
more German wine is imported into the
United States than French wine. The
answer is obvious: There are in the States
many successful German settlers, and they,
having the money, will have the hook OF
the Fatherland, no matter what they pay
for 1t. Thus also in prosperous Belgium
people put scarcely any limit on them
selves in the matter of drink. and whether
it be beer or spirits Belgium stands at the
head In the matter of consumption per
head while even as regards wine, although
it is not wine-producing country, the In
habitants consume as much as do the Ger
mans, whose country is producing.
One point that is brought out very clear
ly in these tables is the fact that the drink
trade is almost everywhere home. indus
try, i. e., that by far the greater portion of
the drink consumed is made in the country
consuming it. We in England import so
much wine and brandy from the continent
that we are perhaps not altogether in II
position to realize the fact, and yet even in
England by far the greater part of the
drink consumed is homemade This is
proved by the relative proportions of the
customs receipts from imported and the
excise receipts from homemade liquors.
The customs receipts amount to f5, 500, 900,
and the excise receipts to e27 900, 900, or in
the proportion Of seventeen per cent. TO
eighty-three per cent. in favor OF. the home
made. Perhaps very few realii Vto how
great an extent France is the 81 winc-
producing, and also the great con
suming country of the world. I tate
ment that the quantity of wine annually
drunk in the United Kingdom, Germany
and the United States, which, taken to-
gether, have population of $50, 900 600
souls, barely exceeds n tenth part of what
is consumed in France. with its 3S,000,000
of Inhabitants enables Jus to more fully
realize the fact. Many, moreover, will be
surprised to find that the consumption per
head of beer in this country exceeds that
OF Germany, for while the German drinks
twenty-five gallons per annum, the English
man drinks thirty gallons. In both coun-
tries the consumption of beer Is distinctly
on the increase.
The following is an interesting fact taken
at hazard: Seventy gallons sof beer
are consumed in this country for every gal
lon OF wine that is drunk; could any clearer
proof be wanting thnt it is the masses who
drink, not the classes? Scarcely the seventh
part Of bottle of champagne per head is
drunk per annum by the inhabitants of this
country; in the United States scarcely the
twentieth part.-Pall Mall Gazette.