The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-15
BEER DRINKING INCREASES.
That's What Brings Up the Amerlcan Average of Liquor Consumption.

Chicago Tribune.
 Interesting details concerning some Of the small vices of Americans-if consump- ton of spirits or tobacco Is a vice-are given in the Statistical Abstract of the
 United States for 19O2,'' which has just been published by the Bureau of Statis- tics of the Treasury Department. The book Is entirely composed of rows and columns of figures, with the proper ex- planatory titles, and Is wholly without ordinary reading matter. But the stories which the figures tell are many and varied.
 It is learned, for instance. that where as half century ago-in 1850. to be pre- else, when the first report was complied the American of the times was satisfied to get through the year on an average per capita consumption of 4.08 gallons of wines and liquors, his successor of today requires 19.4S gallons. This comparison. however. would not be complete without the further information that in 1850 the American citizen consumed, take him all around,223 gallons of distilled spirits whiskey and brandy-as against only 1.36 gallons by the American of 1902. It is in malt liquors, beer, hat the American nowadays has so far outdistanced the American of 1850, raising the average from an insignificant 1.5S gallons to 1I4O gal Ions.
 III tHe matter Wlne tne ClIlZcI Ol tLc United States has never been a large con- sumer. In 1850 the per capita average was but a paltry .7 of a gallon and in 1902 1t has risen only to .63. Parenthetically. it Is noted, that during the last ten years there has been a considerable falling off in the quantity of wine imported from other countries. In 1893 the imports amounted in value to S10, ,205. 1858, while last year the value was only $S,921, ,13S Sa rVw,iV 1Na~ fvnzR A1 know that to Illinois belongs the distinc-
 ton of being the greatest whiskey mak- | ing State in the Union. This is no new | honor which has come tJ Illinois, for she has maintained her lead from as far back as the records go, and well in advance of that great whiskey State Kentucky. Last year Illinois produced 5S.742.S76 gal Ions of distilled spirits, and Kentucky. | which ranked second, 26,019 166 gallons.
 But then, the Statistical Abstract takes
 no account of whiskey which is made
 by moonlight so, after all, Kentucky may have been first.
 New Workers may derive whatever pride | there may seem to be in the distinction | from the information that their State | though only seventh as a maker of whis- key, ranks first as a brewer of beer Beer may have made Milwaukee famous | but the State in which the latter city is
 
 as against $40 barrels by New York | Pennsylvania stands second on the list
 with a record of 5.567 .046 barrels. Just how much tobeacco the present day I American smokes as compared with the | American of the past is not so easily de- 1 termined from the figures given. Duties l and taxes are paid on the quantities oi
 the weed imported and grown each year, | but. of course considerable quantities re- | main in stock at all times.
 In imported tobaccos and cigars there | has been no appreciable increase. In 1895 | the value of all importations was S17.-
 61S,546; last year it was $17.715.4 .493. In to-
 bacco of domestic growth, however. the
 increase was. apparently at least, marked Deducting the value of the tobacco ex-
 ported from the value of the crop grown
 there remained in this country in 1902 to-
 bacco to the value of $53. .591, ,261: in 1S9;
 the value of the crop retained amounted l to $26, 1862. .73S,