The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1903-08-10
DRINK DRAGS WOMEN
DOWN Low.
Dreadful Orgies Of Mothers Void OF
Maternal Instincts-Money for.
a. Child's Burial Goes Into
Gin-Danced on Her
Chi!d's Coffin.

London. August 1-"Poverty produces
the casual dock laborer and relesates
him to these districts. but it Is the demon
of drink that keeps him here
With these words the head master OF d
larre hoard school In the neighborhood
of the docks opened q. story of the effects
of alcoholism in these parts.
1T Is in the dock districts that ono sees
the fearful legacy that beer drinking
fathers and gin soaking mothers beaneath
to their offspring he said TO an In
Dress representative. 1T Is now dinner
time. when the children Should pe ~
( home for their midday meal Let us LOOK
| into tha oars of the four gin shops In this
! street.
f; In these places we counted thfrty-eight
women and twelve children-mere infants
Some wore crawling on the floor, others
living on their mothers knees and some
were being RECALLED with gin and water
There was not a man present In one Oh
the bars where the women congregateu'
1t was a race day. A big race was 10
be run In an hour so. In ten minutes
as many women were seen to leave the
pawnbroker's shop close by Two OF 'neiii
on their way to their favorite puphc
house stopped to DO business with a street
ting back enough money to redeem goods
they had pledged.
ut is In the faces and bodies o1 the
children that the real horror OF this drink
ing curse is seen" the SchoolmaSter sdld.
Drink and its attendant neglect are ,he
causes of nearly all the wretchedhesS anu
vice. ere the sins of the parents a.,
visited with no uncertainty upon the ohi'
dren.
Look at those poor little fellows We're
they born of healthy parents! anu 10
pointed out children whose Wlzeheu, olu
looking faces told their own tale some
of them have been in this class--the low
! est-for years. They have not the slIsh.-
est conception of the dlfereiice pet w a.
right and wrong Their vocabulary is a.
most wholly confined to blaSphemous anu
filthy language
Epidemic's Opportunity
Their staple food? Well bread ana
margarine A hundred of them, dare
saw are dinnerless. Their mothers are
spending dinner money in the gin SHOP
Do YOU wonder at the Roadway eploellcS
make when they break out among such
children? The marvel to me is that me
sanitary authority ever stamps the vista
tons out.
The misery drinkers The Express
81 well describe them, have no nol"iitS
and no sense of deecncy. During tho
SMALLPOX eDlNenlic IL Aio'tNt $500
hahv which was then covered with spots.
- ,,,hltc house. where she sought ad-
vice as 10 the child's ailment from he'
cronies who regularly assenoie al '"'
bar in the afternoons.
'.you may probably have heard Oh INC
Subscription list. Well here Is case
which came under my own opserNatio"
A child of a gin soaker was run over ama
killed. The collecting caro- was 'en'
round for funeral expenses -,
't'rha money was spent in a drunken
1olIt. in VIII II the mother ana her le-
male collectors took the 4eadlhs pdi %.
Tha card was sent round next time 10
nav the doctor This time a most nor
Tible drunken orgy followed. when the
/ u-ratched creature who had brought the
child INTO the world actually a ial
upon and broke the lid OF the CONN
This week | have stripped four boys
and burnt their clothes because OF tnelr
0lthy state They were rugged out win
new ones When we give a child PAIR
of boots We stamp them with eyelets IN
the uppers. Every pawnbroker knows
the boots then.
These drunken mothers come up to the
school and charge their children Wlth
truancy. All the time the little fellows
have been kept At home to mind the
Others while the mother goes drinking
Maternal Instinct Dead.
"A few weeks ago woman smelling
strongly of drink and accompanied by
another in the same condition. came up
to know If her boy had been to school,
He had not Her language was harrible
q pray 10 God she said, that he may
be brought home q corpse tonight. The
maternal instinct seems dead. l doubt
II in the case of the gn-soakers II ever
had any life.
Nurses from nursing homes give de-
voted service here.
The dreadful raVages upon the health
and moral tone of the people, caused by
drink, make one shudder. Here comes a
nurse fresh from visiting a school where
she has been attending to and dressing
tine wounds of children whose mothers
will not take the trouble to see that their
little ones are washed, and whose ills
are mainly caused by dirt.
1T seems incredible, but it IS q fact
that these mothers viii not take the
slightest trouble TO tend these poor little
mites, and some will not even allow the
nurse to see them. Children, too. have
been crippled for life through the neglect
of drunken mothers
''In one case. recently, a boy who had
been in a hospital was given three new
shirts. Two days afterwards he came
to school without one TO mis- back. In
Quiries showed that the shirts had been
scld, and the money spent In drink.
What can be done?' Take all chill
dren of drunken mothers away, and
bring them up away from the vice which
they see every day. Save the children!
The mothers are past redemptop!'
Opium, Morphine, Free Treatment.