Bible Readings for the Home Circle Part 217

The capital invested in the manufacture of liquor in the United States in 1850 was less than $10,000,000. In 1910, sixty years later, it had increased to over $770,000,000, or more than 7,700 per cent.

The total internal revenue received by the United States for liquor for forty-nine years, or from 1863 to 1911, was $5,245,916,047.01.

The use of whisky, beer, cigars, and cigarettes in the United States increased enormously in 1912. During the three months of July, August, and September of this year alone, 33,150,000 gallons of whisky were used, an increase of 450,000 gallons over the corresponding period of the previous year; 19,800,000 barrels of beer were drunk, an increase of 320,000 barrels over the same months of 1911; 1,950,000,000 cigars were smoked, a record consumption; and more than 3,800,000,000 cigarettes were consumed, an increase of 1,000,000,000 over the same period of the previous year.

4. What can be said of intemperance in Great Britain?

Speaking of intemperance in Great Britain, the _English Watchword_ says:-

"Thanks to our brewers and publicans, and the cooperation of the magistrates who license them, and the consent of the Christian church which permits the liquor traffic to continue, we have:-

"1,000,000 paupers on the rates through drink, 100,000 criminals in jail through drink, 50,000 lunatics in asylums through drink, 60,000 deaths annually through drink, and a standing army of- 60,000 confirmed drunkards."

5. To what extent is beer manufactured in the world today?

The enormous extent of the beer industry in the world at the present time is indicated by the following table prepared in 1903 by Gambrinus, of Vienna:-

Germany 18,230 United Kingdom 5,547 America and Australia 2,210 Austria-Hungary 1,436 Belgium 3,319 France 3,360 Russia 920 Sweden 250 Denmark 370 Switzerland 228 Holland 372 Other countries 260 Total 36,502

The amount of beer produced by these 36,502 breweries is estimated at considerably over 150,000,000 barrels annually.

Gallons of Liquor Consumed Annually by the World Today

Wine Beer Spirits Australia 7,925,000 47,976,000 3,297,000 Austria-Hungary 192,800,000 545,674,043 120,000,000 Belgium 8,948,200 395,285,258 9,895,000 Bulgaria 29,100,000 946,000 770,000 Denmark 63,213,000 4,000,000 Dominion of 1,386,235 39,896,636 6,054,790 Canada France 1,710,900,000 289,103,000 97,177,968 German Empire 79,600,000 1,782,778,000 124,313,300 Holland 1,980,000 9,328,000 Italy 856,520,000 6,725,000 11,150,400 New Zealand 126,000 7,381,000 602,000 Newfoundland 7,200 312,000 364,000 Norway 8,756,000 1,672,000 Portugal 108,320,000 Roumania 52,840,000 1,320,000 6,996,000 Russian Empire 76,620,000 151,633,892 232,813,382 Servia 6,605,000 Spain 428,000,000 20,000,000 Sweden 898,200 44,440,000 10,730,500 Switzerland 22,190,000 45,452,000 United Kingdom 26,349,873 1,021,123,632 38,133,721 United States 62,000,000 1,851,342,256 133,538,684 Total 3,673,115,708 6,323,357,717 810,836,745

Grand total, 10,807,310,170 gallons.-_American Prohibition Year Book, 1912._

Comparative Annual Cost of Liquor and Other Things in the United States

Intoxicating liquor $1,752,000,000 Tobacco 1,200,000,000 Iron and steel 1,035,000,000 Jewelry and plate 800,000,000 Printing and publis.h.i.+ng 750,000,000 Lumber 700,000,000 Cotton goods 675,000,000 Automobiles 500,000,000 Woolen and worsted goods 475,000,000 Flour 455,000,000 Boots and shoes 450,000,000 Panama Ca.n.a.l 400,000,000 Public education 371,000,000 Sugar and mola.s.ses 310,000,000 Furniture 245,000,000 Silk goods 240,000,000 Potatoes. 210,000,000 Confectionery 200,000,000 Church and home work 175,000,000 Soft drinks 120,000,000 Tea and coffee 100,000,000 Brick 100,000,000 Millinery 90,000,000 Patent medicines 80,000,000 Chewing-gum 13,000,000 Foreign missions 12,000,000

NOTES.-"Grape-Juice has killed more people than grape-shot."-_Spurgeon._

"O that men should put an enemy in their mouths, to steal away their brains!"-_Shakespeare._

"The liquor traffic is the most degrading and ruinous of all human pursuits."-_William McKinley._

"All its history is written in tears and blood."-_Robert J.

Burdette._

"In every community three things always work together,-the grog-shop, the jail, and the gallows,-an infernal trinity."-_Henry Ward Beecher._

"Give me a sober population, not wasting their earnings in strong drink, and I will know where to get my revenue."-_William E.

Gladstone._

"I have looked into a thousand homes of the working people of Europe; I do not know how many in this country. In every case, as far as my observation goes, drunkenness was at the bottom of the misery."-_Carroll D. Wright, former Commissioner of Labor, U. S.

A._

"The liquor traffic is a hydra-headed monster, which, with ceaseless and tireless energy, wastes the substance of the poor, manufactures burdensome taxes for the public, monopolizes the time of courts, fills the jails and penitentiaries and asylums, terrorizes helpless women and children, and mocks the law."-_Gen.

Nelson A. Miles._

"I have no sympathy with the statement, so often made, that the manufacture and sale of liquor have contributed to the industrial development of the nation. On the contrary, I believe that liquor has contributed more to the moral, intellectual, and material deterioration of the people, and has brought more misery to defenseless women and children, than has any other agency in the history of mankind."-_John Mitch.e.l.l, vice-president American Federation of Labor._

"The saloon is the mortal enemy of peace and order, the despoiler of man and the terror of women, the cloud that shadows the face of children, the demon that has dug more graves and sent more souls unshriven to judgment than all the plagues that have wasted life since the plagues of Egypt, or all the wars since Joshua stood before Jericho."-_Henry W. Grady._

What A Barrel Of Whisky Contains

A barrel of headaches, of heartaches, of woes; A barrel of curses, a barrel of blows; A barrel of sorrow for a loving, weary wife; A barrel of care, a barrel of strife; A barrel of unavailing regret; A barrel of cares, a barrel of debt; A barrel of hunger, of poison, of pain; A barrel of hopes all blasted and vain; A barrel of poverty, ruin, and blight; A barrel of tears that run in the night; A barrel of crime, a barrel of groans; A barrel of orphans' most pitiful moans; A barrel of serpents that hiss as they pa.s.s, That glow from the liquor in the bead of the gla.s.s; A barrel of falsehoods; a barrel of cries That fall from the maniac's lips as he dies!

Scripture Admonitions (A Responsive Reading)

[Ill.u.s.tration.]

The Home Crusher. "The drunkard ... shall come to poverty." Prov. 23:21.

"_Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!_" Isa.

5:11.

"And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of His hands." Verse 12.

"_And the Lord spake unto Aaron, saying, Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee._" Lev. 10:8, 9.

"They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it." Isa. 24:9.

"_It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink._" Prov. 31:4.

"Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower." Isa. 28:1.

"_He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man: he that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich._" Prov. 21:17.

"For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags." Prov. 23:21.

"_Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also._" Hab. 2:15.

"Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink." Isa. 5:22.