The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1907-06-01
JOHN BULL Is DRY.

ment was the thing to use.
The council then adjourned.
JOHN BULL Is DRY.
That the wave of sobriety" to
which the late Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer referred in his budget speech
last year is still flowing Is proved by
the fact that last year John Bull spent
nearly 100000 pounds less on intox-
icants than in the previous years
more accurately, he saved 4O1, 6O2
pounds every month on his drink bill.
And this is no exceptional or spas
modic effort on his part, for his thirst
has been now declining steadily for
Six years to such an extent that in
1906 his alcoholic drinks actually cost
him more than 21,750,OOO pounds, or
nearly 10000 pounds day, less than
in 1889.
IT the present rate of decline con-
tinues it is estimated than by 1880
the British drink bill will have fallen
below 100,000,000 pounds year, a
smaller amount than it has ever to-
tailed since the year 1868 and this in
spite of the fact that the population
will probably then be 6O,OO0,0O0. II
this desirable consummation is real
lied the amount spent per head on
intoxicants two dozen years hence will
be only pound, 10 shillings and 4
pence, or less than half its amount
when Queen Victoria came to the
throne.
1t is not easy to realize from these
figures what such decrease in the
consumption of liquor as was exper-
fenced last year really means. We
get better conception of 1t when
we find that the beer alone of which
John Bull voluntarily deprived him
self every month of last year, as COM
pared with IL months earlier, would
fill bottle 30 feet in diameter-so
capacious that it would take rs life
guardsmen 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 de-
cline 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 levia-
TIM glass the tumbler would be more
than 200 yards in mean circumference
Qess than nine circuits to the mile);
it would tower 80 yards higher than
the apex of the cross on st. Paul's
Cathedral and would require a spoon
four times the length of the London
monument to stir it with. From this
glass John Bull could drink 1890
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
a mile around it, and rose 100 yards
higher than the famous Eiffel Tower,
or roughly, four times as high as the
clock tower at Northumberland 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 Broodingnagian bottle
OF beer; and they would fill suffic-
lent 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 county of London;
dozen cruisers could float on them;
and they were disposed of at the rate
of little less than 10000 bottles night
and day throughout the year. One
need not be a temperance enthusiast
to find such mental pictures stagger-
ing; but what must one think when
we find that in 60 years the British
thirst has been INDUCED at a cost of
over 1889 100000 pounds-a sum more
than nine times that of our national
debt, enormous as it now is, repre-
senting considerably more than half
the entire wealth of the United King
dom, and probably a tenth of the
wealth of the whole world.
1t is, however, some satisfaction to
know that however thirsty John Bull
is. many of his neighbors are thirstier
still. 1t is true that the average Brit
on drinks 81 gallons of beer in year;
but this is abstinence compared with
the Belgian's AZ gallons. the Bavar-
ian's 81 gallons and the Wurtemberg-
er's AZ gallons. OF wine, the Italian
drinks % Tin 1902 1t was 20 gallons
in IL months; the Frenchman % and
the Spaniard Is gallons, whereas the
Briton is content with moderate
third of gallon, or bottle every six
months. AS spirit drinker, too, the
Briton compares favorably with his
neighbors, for while he consumes four
fifths of gallon yearly the Dane dis
poses of 81 gallons, the German
drinks nearly a couple lof gallons, and
the South Australian Northern Terri
tory exceeds 3 gallons.
1t is interesting to note, in conclu-
sion, that while last year the English
man spent the average of pounds,
10 shillings and 10 pence on intoxi-
cants, the Scotchman's expenditure
was pounds shilling and 9 pence,
and the Irishnan's only 10 pence over
pounds. .'f 10 AAfs> 'suSAlNA