78S THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



borne by tlie family of the drunkard, whose condition, ah-eady wretched 

 enough on account of the vice to which he is addicted, is thus made 

 still more deplorable. Imprisonment for a first offense is not permit- 

 ted, and in any case seems a punishment disproportioned to an offense 

 in the commission of which the defendant has done himself more harm 

 than he has the public ; and this is especially true when the arrest has 

 been made, as frequently happens in the winter, out of pure compas- 

 sion, to save the defendant from injurious exposure to the cold. Be- 

 sides, short sentence to imprisonment can be no satisfactory offset to 

 the expense already incurred in the arrest, for, as a prisoner on short 

 sentence, the convict becomes the occasion of an additional item of 

 expenditure. To discharge him without sentence is the only other 

 course open, and this it is useless to discuss if it is to be admitted that 

 an arrest should be made at all. 



The experience gained from the cases mentioned, although they 

 have not been exceedingly numerous, has yet been sufficient to teach 

 me some facts, and to occasion a good deal of thought on the matter 

 of temperance legislation. I have noticed that the number of arrests 

 for drunkenness has not varied with the number of places open for the 

 sale of intoxicants. In fact, in one year, when no licenses for their 

 sale were granted in our town, the arrests were unusually numerous, 

 and this was due to the fact that there were a large number of im- 

 ported laborers employed in certain railroad-work in the neighbor- 

 hood, and that from among them the " drunks " were furnished. From 

 this it would seem that the habits of the community have more to do 

 with the consumption of intoxicants than the number of places of sale. 

 The nationality of the persons arrested looks in the same direction 

 The simple " drunks " have been for the most part Irish ; the common 

 drunkards, American, who have been almost exclusively permanent 

 residents, perfectly well known to the overseers of the poor, the peace 

 officers, and the magistrates. I can not recall that a German has ever 

 been before me for either offense, and this although there is a large 

 German population in the village where I reside. From all the fore- 

 going I come to the conclusion that the present license law in Massa- 

 chusetts does not, and that the prohibitory law when in existence did 

 not, affect the drinking habits of more than a very small portion of 

 the community. The question is. What legislation is necessary or de- 

 sirable under these circumstances ? 



The unusual characteristics of the presidential election of 1884 have 

 thrown into peculiar prominence a movement to make prohibition of 

 the traffic in intoxicating liquors a national issue. The object of this 

 movement is to get incorporated into the fundamental law of the Federal 

 Union, by way of constitutional amendment, a provision for such pro- 

 hibition or requiring such prohibition by the States. To one who has 

 made even a superficial study of the Constitution of the United States 

 this must seem a wide departure from the spirit in which that instru- 



