Grappling with the Monster

All this in a single year, and at a cost variously estimated at from six to sevenhundred millions of dollars! Or, a sum, as statistics tell us, nearly equal to the costof all the flour, cotton and woolen goods, boots and shoes, clothing, and books andnewspapers purchased by the people in the same period of time. If this were all the cost? If the people wasted no more than seven hundred millionsof dollars on these beverages every year, the question of their use would be onlyone of pecuniary loss or gain. But what farther, in connection with this subject, arewe told by statistics? Why, that, in consequence of using these beverages, we havesix hundred thousand drunkards; and that of these, sixty thousand die every year. That we have over three hundred murders and four hundred suicides. That overtwo hundred thousand children are left homeless and friendless. And that at leasteighty per cent. of all the crime and pauperism of the land arises from theconsumption of this enormous quantity of intoxicating drinks. In this single view, the question of intemperance assumes a most appalling aspect.