Evening star., 1921-08-27
DRUNK CASES HERE
INCREASE BY Third
Jail Report for Fiscal Year
Shows Preceding Period
Greatly Exceeded.

Wall SNSSS~S~s
Jail sentences for intoxication in the
District during the last fiscal year in
creased "a per cent over the preced-
ing twelve months, according to the
annual report of w. L. Peak, superin-
tendent of the District Jail.
During the year just closed there
were 1907 sentenced for imbibing
more than they could carry without
attracting the attention of a police
man. The total number for the pre-
ceding year was S41, making last
years increase 256. or "a per cent.
This increase was rather uneXpect-
ed. since the record of S41 for the
year ended July l, 1920. represented a
decrease of 1866 from the year end
ing July. 1919
Some New Beverages.
prom their low point following
the new law the figures are ascending
and intoxication for the moment is
increasing" reads the superinten-
dents report. 'The beverages are new
and most of them are legitimate arti-
c!es Of commerce. but they are being
used for purposes never designed by
the manufacturer.
Hair tonic. flavoring extracts. per-
fumes, medicines and the poisonous
wood alcohol are all being consumed
by the old-time victims of habit
which required an act of Congress to
cure. The increase is due to the fact
that younger men have been able to
evade the law and have found means
of traff1cking in Salable limitations of
old beverages having an alcohol con-
tent nearly double that of the older
product.
THE enforcement of the law Is fully
in ta TO- wi INF
and the increased violations are prob
ably only an erratic fiuctuation in the
process of extinction.
Other Ofenses.
Because the courts took such q
determined stand in the matter of
frowning upon certain forms of reck-
lessness and defiance of law good re-
suits are already indicated. There
were f1fty-seven fewer cases of carry
ing deadly weapons. seventy four
fewer cases of larceny, thirty fewer
cases of grand larceny than last year.
There were fffty-eight sentenced for
joy-riding. a decrease of thirty-four.
murder, gain of ten over last year.
There are four men awaiting execu-
tion.
During the year 1877 prisoners were
transferred to the several peniten-
tiaries. including eleven colored
have been no white women in custody
"a marked contrast to the shoplift-
ing and false pretense era. which fol-
lowed the war. There were 1921
prisoners transferred to Occoquan.
Ths Tsuai total senteacs a tnnnnr in am
twelve hours. for contempt of court,
to 'life," for n4anslaughter or sec
ond-degree murder, was 1,212 years,
2 months and 15h days.
Contrary to Belief.
"It has been the accepted belief that
the boy safely brought through his
teens into the full promise and estate
of young manhood has safely passed
the fields in which wild oats are
grown, and is firmly embarked upon
the broad highway of rectitude and
right living. Because it is SO nearly
universal, the view is undoubtedly
well founded. And yet 1884 Of this
years Jail population Were between
the ages Of twenty and thirty; more
than one-third of all. at the exact time
when life should hold for them every
inducement to be loyal to the pre-
cepts of Righteousness 1t has been SO
before--other reports disclose it-not
the wild care-free age OF youth, but
the age that leaves wife and child
to hang their heads in shame, in the
squalor of privation, because of the
misdeeds of grown man,
'Then on to other years the arrow
points until it passes beyond the six
tieth milestone. and fifty-one men,
within the limits Of old age, were re-
ceived. There were 500 Of the total
under twenty misguided, ignorant,
reckless, and their crimes were nearly
always more serious than those of
men between forty and Nifty. In this
latter group are found the habftual
drunkards, SO that they pad the total
of their generation to 554. Twenty to
thirty is he age of yielding to temp
tation--it ia there the ounce Of pre-
vention ID needed"