Year: 1874

Ana dust that nave no JOY In time.


And only feed on bitter breath.


From the New York world.l


THE COST OF THE SoT.


In estimating the cost to the commu


nifty of single drunkard it is safe t


assume that his intoxication will no


begin, in any form whatever, till he /


fifteen years old. Street children, witt


all the temptations of vagrant life


very rarely get under the influence o
liquor till they have reached that age
and children who have any home, it il


safe to say, never do. Even those whit
are limited for house room to the few
square feet of 4 tenement are pretty
sure to avoid the perils and pleasures Of
dram-drinking the first fifteen years o.
their lives. A stringent law prohibit:
the sale of liquors to any minor under
eighteen, even, without the consent OF
the guardian or parent, and public
opinion itself effectually curbs any
practice. There are many who begin
to drink at about this age, and are con-


irmed in the habit in early manhood,
driven on by favorable surroundings
and the transmitted tastes and passions
of dissolute ancestors; but their habits
have cost the community nothing till
after they have passed their fifteenth
birthday. To avoid any exaggeration,
and to make the elements in the prob
lem as simple as possible, itmay be well
to 60 to the bottom of the social scale
and take, as typical instance of the
waste in excessive drinking, a boy who
has had the nuture and education which
any industrious mechanic in this city,
or any of the higher class of day la
borers could give. So far as drunken
ness is concerned he has reached fifteen
with the negative virtue OF neither
knowing good or evil, without bias or
prediction either for or against the
habit. Up to that time he has been
reared and educated with every reason
able prospect that the cost of bringing
him to manhood will prove good in
vestment in every sense of the
word. The first loss which the CON-
munity feels from his intoxication is
the entire disappearance of the sum ex-
pended to bring him to point where
he could get drunk. The value Of an
able-bodied, clear-headed, healthy boy,
fifteen years old, who has been to school
for about the average length Of time
six years-is not easy to compute.
Down South a ''likely" boy fifteen
years old would have brought, few
years ago at forced sale, $500. But
this boy is more than alikely." He is
educated in the simpler branches of
knowledge. He may have also learned
the rudiments of trade, ami become
already, in small way, what socie-
ty has right to expect he will become
in very few years in large way, a
producer. The mere private cost of his
production is by no means small. He
has had his share besides in the protec-
ton and safety of government and the
accumulated comfort of the past, all of
which had been lavished on him in the
legitimate hope that he would in his
time shoulder a part of the taxes, and
aid in accumulating comfort and capi-
tai for the future. As a child, suppos-
ing that his. life has been passed in the
family of mechanic, his expenses for
fifteen years cannot fall much below
this estimate: -'-'-= -=--'--'-'s
Board ten years at ssand i've years at ss s,o
Share Of rent at sll month in a family


of five persons, Soy q = a t04
Clothing so fer ten years $50 for five years $50
Miscellaneous. sickness, etc., in all, fgfr a75


Total, 1a-. t4t ! N1ts DiitJi s2,9a9


All this on the supposition that the
family has included three rooms only,
that the family has had not more than
five persons in it, all told, and that food
and clothing have been of the plainest
description, with enough of both to
produce healthy and vigorous growth;
but with nothing to vary the monotony
of fare limited to the necessaries of life
He has cost as a member of family
and that a family inexpensive and
economical, about $4,000; lis citizen
he has cost a much smaller sum, but
still one that is fairly appreeiable. /
THE COST TO THE,sTArE.ag TuI|
Taxes State, fifteen years, 81 &. 165
Taxes-County, fifteen years, l23
Taxes for national expenses, fifteen years 1876


Total, s5s5


As person up to the age of fifteen
has done nothing to earn the cost of
the protection which q civil govern
ment gives in all its different branches,
it is evident that, so far as he is con-
cerned, the aliquot share expended on
him is so much paid out to rear and
educate; direct investment which the
community makes in him with the hope
of q return, precisely as the same COM
munity, or part of it, invests in ca
nal or railroad, with the difference that
the return is apt to be higher one and
that the risk is also greater. This in
vestment amounts to at least $546. It.
is direct, and easily computed. There
is another just as certain, but which
cannot be so readily reckoned. The to-
tai valuation of the country is placed
at $50, ,06S, ,51S, ,507 in real and personal
estate, and all this accumulated wealth
of the parts work together to make life
easier for the young man, who till he is
fifteen years old is aiding nothing to
it. He stands, too, the representative
of another expense as tangible, but
even less easy to give definitely. About
half the population die before they
reach the fifteenth year from birth.
That is, to bring 800 persons to this
point requires the birth and support for
a longer or shorter time of, and the cost
to the community Of each at the age