The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1899-02-03
FLOATS In LIQUOR.
An Appalling Account of Alcohohc
Drinks Used in Greater New York.


Drinks Used in Greater New York.
The New York Tribune recently is
sued a special edition of mammoth size,
devoted to the glorification OF the
Greater New York as an industrial cen
ter. Among the industries which came
in for share of the glorificatlon were
the breweries and the wine and spirit
trades. Regarded from a strictly com
rnercial point of view, the showing made
here was, of course, a very line one
Such an immense amount of capital in
vested, such an enormous output OF
manufactured products, were enough
surely to make the hearts of the citizens
of the Greater New York swell with
pride. But let the Tribune tell the won
derful story:
"The aggregate investment in the
brewing industry in Greater New
York." it says, .'has reached many mil
lions of dollars, and constant employ
ment is given to not less than $4,000
people; $4,000 horses and wagons are
employed in handling the raw mate
rial and the finished product to and
from the breweries.
"What becomes of the 100000 bar
rels of beer that are annually produced
in Greater New York? a competent
authority, in answer to that question,
replied: Greater New York drinks it.
Of the $1,000 barrels of foreign beers
imported into the United States, about
5000 barrels were consumed in Greater
New York. In addition, there was an
indeterminate quantity of beer con-
sumed not made within the city. These
items are estimated to about equal in
the aggregate the quantity of New
York made beer shipped to other points
of consumption, leaving 100000 bar
rels as the average annual consumption
of the city. Reduce that quantity to the
more familiar basis of measurement,
and it equals 232, 100000 gallons-or.
say, 3,72O,OOO,00O glasses-or 1910
glasses annually for each one of the
100000 men, women and children that
may be considered as living within the
limits of Greater New York-3k glasses
every day of the year for each one of
them" What noble and inspiring
record this is, indeed! Three and a
half glasses a day for every inhabitant
of this greater city, all manufactured
and drunk right here on the spot too!
What a great people we are! How
proud we ought to be of ourselves!
But that is not all the story by any
means. We do a great deal more than
that. We manufacture and buy and sell
wine and spirits, too, by the hundreds
of thousands of gallons Hear what the
Tribune says about this: "Dominick
Lynch and his wine cellars were con-
spicuous figures in the business of the
city 90 years ago, but nowadays he
would be quite lost to sight among the
1907 importers and $50 other wholesale
dealers in wine and spirits who strive
together in keen competition for the
patronage of the 10000 retail establish
ments of one sort and another where
the products of the winepress and the
still can be procured by the thirsty
public of this great city; and his few
pipes of aromatic sercial and rich col
ored malmsey would be swept along IN
noticed in the tidal wave of 10000 n'
to $4,000, 900 gallons of wine and spirit:
that annually pours into Greater New
York. Of the 100000, 900 gallons of dis
titled spirits imported into the United
States during 1895, $4,000 gallons came
through the port of Greater New York,
besides over 700, 900 gallons of American
whisky reimported from Europe, and
about 10000 gallons Of California bran
dy. Add to these figures about $780,
600 gallons OF domestic whisky received
during the same period, and the meas
ure of the annual consumption and dis.
tribution of Greater New York is
reached. Inasmuch as New York draws
to itself so large proportion of wine
and spirit importations, it is but nat.
ural that foreign manufacturers should
make special efforts to keep their par
tlcular brands constantly before the
buyers of this market, hence many OF
the larger European manufacturers
have resident agents in the city, who
add largely both in numbers and in
fiuence and in capital represented to
the distinctly local interests already
mentioned. Likewise the great distil-
leries of the middle states, and the wine
producers of California and the region
about Lake Erie, find it greatly to their
advantage to be represented at the me-
tropolis of the nation, and their agents
are active and persistent in their efforts
to convince the wholesale buyer and the
great drinking public that no goods
from over the seas can rival in purity
and excellence the sparkling catawba of
western New York. or the handmade
sour mash"
The spectacle of that "tidal wave of
12,OOO,000 to 100000 gallons of wine
and spirits" annually pouring into the
Greater New York, Isl enough of itself
to set every breast aglow with poetic
lire. Such magnificent spectacle. dg-
niiicant of so much of progress, pros
perlty and happiness! And besides all
this, there is the sparkling catawba and
the handmade sour mash" Who
would rot live forever where such allur-
ing prospects invite ?7Christian Work.
Athletes With and Without Alcohol.
An ex-prcsident Of the Cambridpe
University Athletic club, whose letter
appears ill the Temperance Chronicle.