The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1903-11-05

WOMEN WHO DRINK.
Lady Henry Somerset Declares That
England Has an ADDaIling
Number of Them.

| ReNIeW. we must leave TOT a moment
| the fields and flowers and birds and
beasts. and 90 into the dingy city, and
! pass the courts and the alleys and the
| pawnbrollers' shops and the old clothes
| shops: we must go down into the kitch-
ems where the rats share the damp
darkness with the inhabitants. and
then walk out again into the dusty
street; and then we shall begin to I'M
| derstand what is the center of attrac-
| ton to the jewellers in the narrow
| court and gloomy Stun. At the corner
Of the street there is a public house.
! and if We watch the swinging door for
a moment we shall be able TO realize
why it is that in England there are
more drunken women than in any 9TH
! er nation. and how it is that the brew
! ers have made larger fortunes than can
| be amassed at any other trade.
| Between the hours of one and three
| o'clock you will see in this squalid dis
| trict from 100 to 200 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
/ thar has in it the taste of gin. Be
| tween those hours. too. you will see
$50 or 200 girls, with tattered clothes.
! torn pinafOreS. some almost ShOeleSS,
all ragged. all dirty, all disheveled,
! entering with jugs to carry away the
drink To their miserable homes. AS
many boys under the age of If or Is
| will be there, too. making. perhaps,
! total in one afternoon of 500 children.
| | remember on one occasion of stand
ing in front of just such public house
/ land if you look down the street you
will see that there are 20 mOrel, 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, as they did in America
20 years ago.
! 1T seemed TO her inCOnceivable that
! women We're going there to drink: but
/ TO us it has become a COMMONPLACE
and those who know anything of the
social life of the people in England
| have long realized that children are
! drunk for the first time in their moth
ers' arms. or cursed with the appetite
/ before they are born. In their earliest
| association. the public house stands as
| the most prominent factor in their
existence. and has stored their minds
with the impressions of everything
| that is vile and bad.
But there is another picture Of our
social life of which | have TO speak
! before | 90 back again 10 the country
! farm. and in order to bring this be-
| fore the minds of those who are inter
ested in social problems. I must ask
| them to 90 inside a large London drink
| den. There you will find great num-
| Der of entrances, six, eight or ten. and
each of these entrances leads into
| separate small bar. and. if You are in
! clined 10 sit for moment and ask for
! a glass of lemonade. you can watch
! those who pass in and out.
| "A young girl, well dressed and of
/ respectable parentage. will come in,
/ accompanied by the young man to
whom she is engaged, and they will
| call for a glass of spirits or beer and
| sill down TO drink as a matter of course.
! A middlP-aged woman. who has known
! better days. draws her mantle about
| her, and looks around to see if any one
! has noticed that she has crossed the
| threshold: her face is pale and drawn
and she has anxious lines around her
! eyes. Employment is hard to get. and
| she is going to try to forget how diff
/ cult ii is TO live. as she carries in her
/ thin trembling hand a glass of neat
! spirit to The further corner of tile bar.
| Then there are a middle-aged man and
| his wife, who ask for beer. a woman
with baby and young husband: the
| finger in the glass and rubs its lips
! A little noise in another bar tells us
that there different class has assem-
| bled and there we see the ragged dem
| liens Of the slums; but every class is
! represented. and among them women
are prominently to be found
What wonder. then. that as we read
! 'It diHdiS vi Tue F1uSllSN ponce courts
we realize that drunkenness has not
only invaded the homes of the poorest
Of the people but also that drinking
! is alarmingly on the increase among
women of the wealthy and the leisured
! classes: that not only are destitute and
| degraded women committed to our
prisons. who are unable to pay the fine
! but that women in apparently respect
able positions are continually convict
ed of drunkenness, until it may be tru-
| ly said that scarcely family exists
but has some record OF this hideous
| disease"
The Ruin of At College Man.
A Harvard graduate, the scion OF
wealthy family whose name is honor
able. drank carbolic acid. and fell dead
at the feet of the woman he loved, not
a great while ago in New York city.
What had wrought such ruin in a
strong, cultivated. elegant young man?
IT was the drink. Little by little il
had undermined his will power and
had become his master
Liquor Men Fail.
Nineteen bills We're introduced In