The story of an alcohol slave : as told by himself / Mr. W.N. Hartshorn, Chairman Executive Committee, Boston, Mass., Mr. Fred A. Wells, Treasurer, Hartford Building, Chicago, Ill., Mr. Marion Lawrance, General Secretary, Hartford Building, Chicago, Ill.

Date:
[between 1910 and 1919?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The story of an alcohol slave : as told by himself / Mr. W.N. Hartshorn, Chairman Executive Committee, Boston, Mass., Mr. Fred A. Wells, Treasurer, Hartford Building, Chicago, Ill., Mr. Marion Lawrance, General Secretary, Hartford Building, Chicago, Ill. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    rn The Story of an Alcohol Slave : o As Told by Himself ¢ (What the Example of the confident, complacent, respectable Moderate Drinker. is and does in decoying new recruits into the ranks of Alcohol Slaves; what the Saloon is and does in making that slavery hopeless; these two points stand out with startling clearness in this “Story of an Alcohol Slave.”” ‘Teachers of classes of boys and young men will do well to distribute these leaflets, —Ed.) At fourteen years of age I developed a love of statistics, accounts, and bookkeeping. Since I was fifteen, I have kept an accurate account of my expenditures in saloons, covering a period from January 1, 1878, to April 27, 1908. The total debit balance of my personal “saloon account” for thirty years is $17,364.60. This amount covers alcoholic beverages, mixed or straight, purchased by me in saloons, drug stores, blind pigs, bars, buffets, cafes, restaurants, hotels, dining-cars, steamers and theatres. It also covers slight losses at playing saloon slot-machines; losses at dice-shaking in saloons for drinks; losses at card-playing in saloons for drinks; one gun hold-up in a saloon; three gun hold-ups in saloon districts; and two chloral-hydrate robberies at saloon bars. Therefore, my average daily saloon expense was $1.57 for every calendar day of thirty-year period named. I believe the so-called “best” people of our saloon-licensing States are not aware of the fact that drinkers and drunkards are originally made by illegal liquor-selling to minors. I know the perpetuation of the saloon busi- ness is based on minors forming the habit of liquor-drinking at the earliest possible age. I know that certain saloonkeepers and bartenders sell intoxi-_ cating liquors over their bars to minors at the earliest moment they can do so without risking legal prosecution. My experience and observation for a period of twenty-nine years in the United States leads me to believe that saloon drinkers over forty years of age are five per cent of the total number; that drinkers between thirty and forty years of age are ten per cent of the total number; that drinkers be- tween twenty-one and thirty years of age are thirty-five per cent of the total number; and that fifty per cent of the total number of drinkers in saloons are minors. Learning Saloon Life as a Newsboy. At nine years of age I lived in a middle Western city that licensed one hundred and eight saloons. Outside of school hours 1 sold daily papers in the business district. At first I felt a horror of saloons, pity and fear for drunkards, due to home and church teaching. Darting in and out of saloons selling papers, I began to feel a curiosity as to what peculiar quality lurked in the liquids consumed by saloon customers. It was fun for me to loiter a minute and watch saloon life. Pool fascinated me, and I longed for the time to come when I should be big enough to play. 2 % — : 3 ad
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