The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1910-07-21

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MUCH DRUNKENNESS HIDDEN
English Inspector, Under Inebriate
Act, Shows How Little Is Known
of True Conditions.

Although there has been an &C.
knowledged improvement in the gen.
eral drinking habits of Great Britain,
says the London Mail, it is by no
means clear that any real advance
has been made toward the suppression
of habitual drunkenness-the form Of
drunkenness that gave rise to tenn
perance work, the form that causes
all the real misery and matters most
This is the conclusion reached by
DR.. R. w. Branthwaite, inspector I'M
der the inebriate act The large ma
jority of the population, he says in his
annual report, are now moderate
drinkers who never get drunk or tee
totalers, but below the surface there
is small army of habitual drunkards
who are hidden out of sight in better
class life, or, in lower class life, lost
IN the obscurity of slums, prisons and
warehouses.
In times gone by" Doctor Branth-
waite says the habitual inebriate was
constantly in evidence in the streets,
in public houses, and in private life.
He was allowed freedom to roam
about and display his peculiarly, be-
ing treated with the same federation
as the village idiot or harmless lu-
matte. When he became too great a
nuisance he was put still more in evil
dence by public chastisement in pill
lory or stocks. In other words, every
drunkard was then known and seen.
Today the habitual drunkard in a
well-to-do private family is relegated
to the skeleton cupboard and prevent
ed so far as possible from publicly ex-
hibiting his failing.
"Pauper drunkards hide themselves
in warehouses, shelters, or charitable
colonies, the only places where they
can get food; or, when they become
sufficiently insane, are immured In
asylums. The man who appears drunk
in a play house. drunk and disorderly
in the street, or who commits a Grim
inal offense through drunkenness is
hurried to the police cell, ultimately
to prison. AS a consequence of all
this the ordinary individual sees lit
tie or nothing of the habitual drunk
ards of today and is apt to believe
that but few exist
ut remained for some persons who
were intimately associated with these
hidden drunkards, some 80 or 40 years
ago, to point out how plentiful they
were, how little they had been af-
fected by orthodox temperance eff
forts in the past. and how meager was
the evidence that any decrease in the
prevalence would be likely to result
from the steady exercise of such en-
ergy in the future"
Three departmental committees, it
Is pointed out, have strongly recon-
mended that power TO commit an
inebriate to control in a retreat on
the application of friends should be
given to a properly constituted court.
The number of cases sent to inebri-
ate reformatories in 1908 was 262-44
men and 21S women-as compared
with 463 in 1907 but the decrease
was principally due TO want of ac-
commodation for London cases.
Most Of the people sent to to inebri-
ate reformatories are of the feeble
mind" class. OF the 3,032 admissions
of the past ten years. only about 36
per cent were up to the average men,
tai capacity. AS a moderately sound
mind is required for success in the
struggle to throw off the drink habit,
the probability of producing good re-
suits is limited.
Nevertheless, Doctor Branthwaite
considers that good is being done In
the past ten years go inmates were
released on license before the expira-
ton of their terms, and in 63 per cent.
of the cases with satisfactory results,
retaining their freedom for an average
period of seven and a half or eight
months without a relapse