New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-09-13
WOMEN WHO DRINK.
ENGLAND Seems to Haze More than
Enough of Them.

But in order rightly to understand says Lady
Henry Somerset. writing about London in The
North American Review we must leave for a
moment the fields and flowers and the birds and
beasts. and go into the dingy city. and pass the
courts and the alleys and the pawnbrOkers' shops
and the old clothes shops; must go down into
the kitchens where the rats share the damp dark
with the inhabitants. and then walk out again
into the dusty street; and then we shall begin TO
understand what is the centre Of attraction to the
jewellers in the narrow court and gloomy slum. At
the corner OF the street there is public house,
and, IL watch the swinging door for a mo-
ment. shall be able TO realize why II IS that
in England there are more drunken women than in
any other nation. and how it is that the brewers
have made larger fortunes than be amassed
any other trade.
Between The hours Of l and O'Clock you Will
see this squalid district from one hundred TO
two hundred women enter the drink shop with
little babies in their arms. and as those women
crowd into that public house and stand to drink.
they will often give the baby a share Of the liquor
and the little mouth will greedily suck the spoon
or the glass that has in it the taste OF gin. Be
tween those hours, too. you will see hundred and
nifty or two hundred girls, with tattered clothes,
torn pinafores. some almost shoeless, all ragged.
all dirty. all dishevelled. entering with jugs TO
carry away the drink TO their miserable homes.
As many boys under the age OF fourteen fifteen
will be there too, making, perhaps. total in
afternoon Of five hundred children. I remember
on one occasion standing in front Of Just such
public house (and If you look down the street.
you will see that there twenty more), with an
American and when she saw the women going
into the public house. some Of them respectfully
clad. she said: Are they going to hold a crusade
meeting there az they did in America twenty years
ago?
1t seemed to her inconceivabIe that women
were going there 70 drink: but 10 il has become
a commonplace and those who know anything Of
the social life OF the people in England have long
feaIized tEat children are drunk for the first time
IN tnelr mothers arms, or cursed with the appe-
ute before they are born. In their earliest ASSOC
citation, the public house stands as the most proni-
nent factor in their existence. and has stored
their minds with the impressions Of everything that
But there is another picture Of our social life Of
which l have TO speak before go back again 10
fore the minds those who interested in social
problems ! must ask them TO 90 inside a large
London drink den. There you will find that
hnest houses are supplied with great number
entrances leads into separate small bar. and If
you are inclined to sit for a moment and ask for
glass Of lemonade. you can watch those who pass
"A young girl. well dressed and OF respectable
parentage. will come In accompanied by the young
man to whom she is engaged. and they VIII call
as matter OF Course middle aged woman. who
has known better days. draws her mantle about
s tSa e Sas cTosssd to s as
pale and drawn and she has anxious lines round
going try TO forget how difficult IT is 10 live,
o. neat spirit to the further corner OF the bar
Then there are a middle aged and his wife.
y0Hns sS Husband the babY Cries and the mother
dips her finger in her glass and rubs its lips. A
little noise in another bar tells that there
different class has assembled. and there we see the
ragged denizens of the slums; but every class -
represented. and among them women are promi-
nently to be found
what wonder. then. that read the annals
of English police courts. We realize that
drunkenness has not only invaded the homes Of
the poorest Of the people. but also that drinking
IS alarmingly the increase among women Of the
wealthy and the lesured classes that not only are
destitute and degraded women committed to our
prisons. who are unable 10 pay the fine, but that
women in apparently respectable positions are con-
tfnuaIIy convicted OF drunkenness. until 1t may be
truly said that scarcely a family exists but has
some recnrd OF this hideOus disease"