Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1903-01-05
THE NEW HORROR: ENGLISH FEMALE
DRUNKENNESS.

me to submit the following, TAKEN
from the Temperance Notes. col
umn of The Methodist Recorder, of Nov.
q, 1902, the very conservative official
journal of English Methodism:
"The awful increase of female
drinkingis one of the most terrifying
features of life in these days-at any
rate, in this country. The best way
70 drive home the truth of this state
ment to the conscience of our read
eTs will be to marshal some facts,
figures and testimonies bearing |
directly on the matter If they do
not shock, shame, and terrlfy all
who have the welfare of our land at
heart, then, indeed, we are in hope
less case.
"Ponder these testimonies. Lacy
Henry Somerset, speaking at a tenn
perance meeting in Wesley's Chapel
not long since, gave utterance to
these ominous words: we are the
nation with the largest number of
women drunkards in the world
The wife of the Archbishop of Canter-
bury has recently taken up the ques-
ton of female intemperance. She
convened a conference of women,
mostly of the middle classes, to con-
slider the evil, on Nov. 9th. Some of
the figures she gave are fearful. The
deaths of women from chronic alco-
holism have increasd over 145 per
cent. between 1873 and 1897. Out of
the total of London's presumably
incurable drunk ards, that is to say
those who have been convicted over
ten times, there are $500 women to
1890 men!
Gin what we call low life female
drinking is really awful. In the city
] of Glasgow in the year 1900 the
magistrates return states that liz
males were convicted for drunken
/ ness and 1922 females! The way
women, even respectfully dressed
women, pour in and out of the pub
lie houses in our big towns Is dread
full. They 90 it apparently without
any sense of shame. Time was, and
not so long since, when a woman
would have lost her character had she
q been seen entering public house
but there has been a sad change II
,. public opinion on this point. WomeI
: viii enter with their husbands anC
D lovers quite as a matter Of course
e In some pubIic-houses the womeI
L now out-number the men. Two pub
- Hc-houses in London were watched
quite recently on Saturday night
=, From one small house on a bacl
street in Canning Tovn in an houI
and twenty minutes obore cana GU
~ 24O men and 267 women! There wer
o. also So children. The other wa
-. away down in the East, and it wa
watched for an hour and hall
D. There emerged 209 men and $50 wo
men, and this in ninety minutes! l
" one of the Lancashire factory town
n; the public houses have been
p, thronged with women that the pub
licans have found it necessary to dis
IL play a notice that no woman will b
n, allowed to occupy q seat for over fl
mi teen mintes. They are positivel
a crowding out the men! Other publ
n n cans have reason to complain that tt
passages of their houses are blOcke
~. with perambulators."
: 1t should be observed that in En-
ON land drunken people are arrestt
,rd only when they disturb the peace
are unable to stagger home.
Let me ask the readers attentiC
Aly to the ques ton, what shall becor
/, of the morals of a nation who
motherhood is drunken? Yet as
nation we are practically followi
the lines of legislation that b
plorably drunken condition. In t
"P '4Os, Lord John Russell introduced
N; Beer Bill in the English Parliame
as a foil to the excessive dram drin
ing, with the result thatthe thousar
A. of beer saloons soon served to c
- bauch the nation, and the reproa
''drunk as lord" became 'drunk
and a navy" Gladstone, with the b
ngs, intentions, later championed the
VT. censing of grocers, confectioners, a
- tea and coffee houses, for the sale
bottled liquor of all sorts, especis
; emphasizing light wines as temp
: & ance measure, with the result t
the next proverb of reproach 1
,d a scorn bids fair to be, "drunk a
ELS. housewife" Inc costly mlSeaRe
all English legislation, and very mi
w. of our own, is that they have sou
-. to control rather than ertermindte