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Show m Drunkenness in England. FRANK CARPENTER, now in England, Eng-land, writes a weekly letter to a Jdicate of American newspapers, describing de-scribing conditions in the tight little Isle. He finds that the national drink bill exceeds that of any other country. The picture he draws of intoxication among women and girls is the saddest feature of the terrible evil. He says: "Our people who have not visited the factory centers of 'England can have no idea of the terrible condition of the working classes as regards the use of intoxicating liquors. Women and girls patronize the saloons almost as much as the men, and you cannot go into a public house without finding-' from one to a dozen women drinking. There are saloons near all the factories, and at the meal hours the hundreds of factory girls rush for them and sit down with the men and have their beer, gin or whisky with their meals.. They drink at noon and at night, and many drink too much. "The average man, when he receives his wages lays aside a certain amount for his drink over Sunday. If he makes $10 a week he may give his wife $5 for the household expenses and reserve the other $5 for the public house, where he sits and guzzles. In many cases he prolongs his spree till Monday, and the factory then looks for him in vain. This fact makes English labor very unreliable. un-reliable. The companies dare not contract con-tract to finish their jobs in a fixed time, and as a result much of their business is going out of the country. Again, when the American capitalist has a big job his workmen will turn in and work nights to help him. Here. I am told, the average man works rather against than for his employer, and the more skillful a man is the slower he i "For fear what I have said about English drunkenness may be disputed, I have looked up the national drink bill for one year and I find that it exceeds that of any other nation. It amounts to more than $800,000,000 annually, or almost $100 per year for each family of five. The amount spent for liquors in 1900 was moe than the government revenue rev-enue of that year and more than the rents of all the houses and farms of the country. Taking out the people who, it is estimated, abstain from the use of intoxicants, it amounted to about $35 per head, and two-thirds of the whole was drunk by the working classes. These figures are taken from the London Mail Year Book, which also adds that of all the nations of the world the English drink the most and the Americans the least. |