Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1907-01-15
John Bull is Dry.

John Bull is Dry.
That the "wave of sobriety" to which
the late Chancellor Of the Exchequer
referred in his budget speech last year
is still flowing is proved by the fact
that last year John Bull spent nearly
e5. COO 900 less on intoxicants than in
the previous years-mOre accurately, he
saved s4O1, 500 every month on his drink
bill. And this is no exceptional or
spasmodic effort on his part, for his
thirst has been now declining steadily
tor SIX years to such an extent that in
1905 his alcoholic drinks actually cost
him more than 921 ,7500 CO, or nearly
100000 Il day less than in 1889.
IF the present rate Of decline con-
Times il is estimated that by 1890 the
british drink bill Will have fallen be-
low e!00, 100000 a year, smaller
amount than it has ever totaled since
the wear 1863 and this in spite of the
fact that the population will probably
then be CG0. 100000. If this desirable
consunmation is realized the amount
spent per head OH intOXicants two doZ-
en- wears hence will be only 81, 1Js, al,
ar less than than half it's amount when
Queen Victoria came to the throne.
II is not easy to realize from these
figures what such a decrease in the
consumption of liquor as was ex-
Nc rienced last year really means. We
get q better conception OF II When we
find that the beer alone of which John
Bull voluntarily deprived himself every
month of last year, as compared Win
- months earlier, would fill q bottle 81
feet in diametcr-So capaciouS mat II
would take % Life GuGrdsmen TO touch
hands round its base and rising higher
than the pillar Of Nelson's monument
in Trafalgar Square.
But in spite of the six years decline
the Briton's thirst for alcoholic drinks
is still a thing to marvel at If all the
(diluted) spirits he drank last year
were placed in one leviathan glass the
tumbler would be more than 200
yards in mean circumference Qcss
than nine circuits to the mile); it
would tower 50 yards higher than the
apex of the cross on st. PaufS
Cathedral and would require a spoon
four times the length Of the London
monument 70 stir it with. From this
glass John Bull could drink 14300
gallons every hour. night and day, for
IL months without eXhausting its con-
tents.
Johns aggregate beer bottle for 1905
was naturally of much more startling
dimensions. 1t was $50 yards in
diameter more than a quarter of
mile around iD and rose 100 yards
higher than the famous Eiffel Tower,
or roughly, four times as high as the
clock tower al Westminster and this
without taking into account its still
more soaring neck-while it would re-
quire cork so ENORMOUS that ten
regiments of soldiers could find stand
ing room on it. All the ships in the
British navy could float on the con-
tents of this Brobdingragian bottle Of
beer: and they would fill sufficient
number of barrels to reach in a single
row two-fifths of the way around the
equator.
AS for the wines John drank last
year. they far OutWeighed half the
population of the country of London; a
dozen cruisers could float on them;
and they were disposed of at the rate
of littlc less than 10000 bottles night
and day throughout the year. One
need not be temperance enthusiast
to find such mental pictures stagger-
ing; but what must one think when
we lind that in 60 years the British
thirst has been INDUCED at a cost of
over 1899 600, 000-a sum more than
nine times that Of our national debt,
enormous as it now is. representing
considerably more than half the entire
wealth of the United Kingdom. and
probably a tenth of the wealth of the
whole world
IL IS, however. some satisfaction to
know that however thirsty John Phil
IS. many Of his neighbors are thirstier
SUI. 1t is true that the average Bril-
ton drinks 81 gallons of beer~fn a wear.
put TINS is abstinence compared with
the Belgian'S A gallons, the Bavarian's
% gallons and the Wurtemberger's AZ
gallons. OF wine, the Italian drinks
20 I'm 1902 it was 20 gallons in -
months; the Frerchman %. and the
Spaniard Is gallons. whereas tho Rr;-
ton is content with a moderate third of
gallon, or bottle every six months
AS spirit drinker, too. the Rr;ton
compares favorably with his neigh
pors, Tor while he consumes four-ffths
Oh gallon yearly the Dane disposes
VI "a gallons, the German drinks
nearly couple of gallons. and the
south Australian (Northern Terri
tory exceeds gallons.
f Is interesting to note, in con-
clusion' that while last year the
hhgllsllman spent an average Of ca
l9s 1Od on intoxicants, the Scotch
mans expenditure was ss Is Oh and
the lrishnan's only Tod over e3 or
.ne tnree nationalities the Scotchman
Is lar the most abstemious in beer but
MS thirst for spirits runs to az
galions a year.-Tit-Bits.