DRUNKENNESS.
Drunkenness is very common in New York. About eighteen thousand arrests
are made annually for drunkenness alone, and nearly ten thousand more
for drunkenness and disorderly conduct. Besides these there are
thousands of cases of which the police never hear. The vice is not
confined to any class. It is to be seen in all conditions of life, and
in both sexes. Day after day you will see men under the influence of
liquor, reeling through the streets, or lying under the trees in the
public parks. The police soon rid the streets of such cases, which are
comparatively few during the day.
At night the number of intoxicated persons increases. You will then see
all classes of drunkards. There goes a young man, handsomely dressed,
evidently the son of a rich family, unable to stand by himself, and
piloted by a friend whose chief care is to avoid the police. There is a
clerk, whose habits will soon lose him his situation. Here is a woman,
well dressed, too, reeling along at a rate which will soon carry her
into the arms of the policeman. The high and the low are represented on
the streets.
The bar-rooms and beer-gardens are in full blast, and will not close
until midnight. The better class establishments are quiet and orderly,
but the noise and confusion increases as we descend the scale of the
so-called respectability of these places. The sale of liquors is
enormous, and the work of destruction of body and soul that is going on
is fearful. The bar-rooms, beer-gardens, restaurants, clubs, hotels,
houses of ill-fame, concert-halls and dance-houses, are doing an
enormous trade, and thousands are engaged in the work of poisoning
themselves with drink.
[Illustration: A fashionable New Yorker--too much wine.]
Respectable men patronize the better class bar-rooms, and respectable
women the ladies' restaurants. At the latter places a very large amount
of money is spent by women for drink. Wives and mothers, and even young
girls, who are ashamed to drink at home, go to these fashionable
restaurants for their liquor. Some will drink it openly, others will
disguise it as much as possible. Absinthe has been introduced at these
places of late years, and it is said to be very popular with the
gentler sex. Those who know its effects will shudder at this. We have
seen many drunken women in New York, and the majority have been well
dressed and of respectable appearance.
A lady recently went into a confectionery store to purchase some
_bonbons_. She was handsomely dressed, and was quite pretty. As the
proprietor was making up her parcel he saw her stagger and fall.
Hastening round to the front of the counter, he found her lying
helpless on the floor, dead drunk.
Standing at our window one day last winter, we noticed two ladies,
evidently a mother and daughter, come out of one of the most
fashionable private residences in the city, where they had been
visiting. They waited on the corner for a car, which was seen coming
around the park, and to our astonishment we saw the elder lady sit down
flat in the street. She was instantly jerked up by the younger woman,
whose expression of intense disgust we shall not soon forget. As the
old lady got on her feet again, her unsteadiness revealed the cause of
her singular conduct--she was drunk.
There is a depth of misery in New York which those who have not seen
it, cannot conceive of. It exists among the poorer classes, who spend
their earnings in drink. They are always half stupefied with liquor,
and are brutal and filthy. They get the poison from low shops, called
Bucket Houses.
BUCKET HOUSES.
These shops sell the vilest and most poisonous liquors, and derive
their name from the fact that their customers usually bring buckets,
bowls, or pitchers for the stuff, instead of bottles or jugs. They are
confined to the worst quarters of the city, and are foul and wretched
beyond description. The proprietors are brutal wretches, who are
capable of any crime. They do all in their power to encourage
drunkenness, in order to increase their gains. They knowingly sell
actual poisons for drink--liquors which nothing would induce them to
use. On Saturday nights the rush to these places is very great. Liquor
cannot be procured the next day, and so the poor victims of the rum-
seller lay in a double quantity, and spend the Sabbath in a state of
beastly intoxication.