One day we shall be obliged to save ourselves from ruin, even
if we have to stamp out the trade in alcohol entirely, and that by means
of a civil war." Strong words--and yet the man speaks with intense
conviction: and his very quietude only serves to emphasise the awful
nature of his disclosures. As I read on I saw with horror that the
description of the state of things in America accurately fits our own
country. We do not talk of a "saloon" here, but "bar" means the same
thing; and the "bar" is crushing out the higher life of the English
middle-class as surely as the saloon is destroying American manhood.
Amid all our material prosperity, amid all the complexities of our
amazing community, an evil is at work which gathers power daily and
which is actually assassinating, as it were, every moral quality that
has made England strong and beneficent. Begin with a picture. The long
curved counter glistens under the flare of the gas; the lines of gaudy
bottles gleam like vulgar, sham jewelry; the glare, the glitter, the
garish refulgence of the place dazzle the eye, and the sharp acrid
whiffs of vile odour fall on the senses with a kind of mephitic
influence. The evening is wearing away, and the broad space in front of
the bar is crowded.
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