264 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



aecommodation, should be the guiding principles, 

 rather than cheapness. Still, in spite of the bet- 

 ter entertainment, there would be in most cases 

 a profit left after the five per cent, on the capital 

 had been paid. The poor-rate, or other local 

 rate, should benefit by all such extra profit, not 

 only in the case of such places of meeting being 

 established by local authorities, but even when 

 established by philanthropic action. 



In conclusion, while giving due weight to the 

 causes assigned on various sides to account for 

 the large consumption of alcohol in our country, 

 I yet maintain that the natural desire of man to 

 meet his fellow, and the fact that this can only 

 be done by the working-man in a public-house or 

 gin-palace established solely for the rapid con- 

 sumption of beer and spirits, are the chief causes ; 

 and that the true remedy is to put within the 

 reach of the poorer classes a place of social meet- 

 ing where good and simple food, and drink, non- 

 alcoholic as well as alcoholic, shall be sold to 

 him, and where he will not be compelled to over- 

 step the bounds of moderation any more than 

 the rich man in his club. 



Though not essential to the scheme, it will 

 yet be wise to urge upon the Treasury the advan- 

 tage of greater freedom in the manufacture of 

 beer, so that the more enterprising of our brew- 

 ers may be enabled to produce a more dextrinous 

 and less alcoholic beverage than is now made — 

 to brew a conversation-beer, rather than a highly- 

 stimulating one, for purposes of social meeting. 

 The managers of such places should not only 

 take care that the articles sold should be the 

 best of their kind, but should also discourage the 

 consumption of spirits even when good, so far as 

 they can without improper interference with the 

 liberty of the customer. This is not all : it will 

 be well to encourage the presence of the whole 

 family ; an occasional evening in such cafes or 

 clubs will relieve the dreary monotony of the 

 dull and too often wretched home. Such meet- 



ings, joined to the necessity that soon would be 

 felt that all must be presentable in their dress 

 and attentive to their persons, would go no small 

 way to improve the lower portion of the working- 

 classes. Abroad, the fact that the working-man 

 must wash off the dust of the day's toil before 

 going to such places, is of itself no unimportant 

 aid to his general improvement. 



There remains yet one more important use 

 such places could be put to. At present in most 

 cases the benefit-clubs and trade-societies of the 

 working-classes hold their meetings in public- 

 houses because they have no other choice, and 

 because they are tempted by the apparent liber- 

 ality of the publican. The members of such clubs 

 are not only subject to the bad influences of the 

 place, but must drink for the benefit of the land- 

 lord. Those who are best acquainted with the 

 working-classes know well the serious evil that 

 attends such meetings in public - houses ; the 

 amount paid into the benefit society being too 

 often but a trifle compared with that consumed 

 in drink. The upper rooms in the cafe should 

 therefore be devoted to such purposes, a charge 

 being made for the accommodation, which could 

 either be made for an hour, or a month, or a 

 year, and without the pernicious system of be- 

 ing compelled to drink for the benefit of the 

 house. 



Thus, not by the intolerant propositions of 

 the Alliance party, nor by the costly and, I fear, 

 strife-causing means of Mr. Chamberlain, but by 

 the simple and safe influences of example to the 

 working-classes and to the publicans, we may 

 hope in time to see our poorer classes as moderate 

 in their drinking-habits as their fellows in Ger- 

 many and France when meeting together in the 

 evening. Though we shall not make all sober, 

 we can yet remove the cause of insobriety in so 

 man}' — the compulsion to drink. Time and bet- 

 ter influences must be left to do the rest. — Con- 

 temporary Review. 



THE MYSTEEY OF THE PYKAMIDS. 



By KICHAED A. PEOCTOE. 



FEW subjects of inquiry have proved more 

 perplexing than the question of the pur- 

 pose for which the pyramids of Egypt were built. 

 Even in the remotest ages of which we have his- 

 torical record, nothing seems to have been known 



certainly on this point. For some reason or 

 other, the builders of the pyramids concealed the 

 object of these structures, and this so successful- 

 ly that not even a tradition has reached us which 

 purports to have been handed down from the 



