70 THE LURE OF THE LAND 



packages, for I have never had an opportunity to count 

 them, neatly put up in stiff cardboard, are disembarked 

 and eagerly claimed by the waiting consignees. The 

 maximum content of these packages is usually a gal- 

 lon, though smaller packages are sent to those who have 

 less thirst, smaller means, or better control of appe- 

 tite. 



ADULTERATED WHISKEY. 



One of the worst features about this consignment of 

 intoxicating liquors is that it is exclusively, as far as 

 I have been able to observe, what is known as rectified 

 goods. The man at hard labor evidently wants nothing 

 but alcohol, and why should he pay four and five dol- 

 lars a gallon for it in the form of old, mellow whiskey, 

 when he can get a larger amount of intoxication out 

 of the cheaper, fabricated, artificially flavored substi- 

 tutes? From one to three or four dollars, according 

 to the number and size of the packages, is paid out by 

 the laboring man, while perhaps his wife and children 

 are living in squalor and want. A few years ago one 

 of these besotted victims, carrying his rifle, passed by 

 the cottage of a friend near my place, on the road to 

 call on an acquaintance near by. Soon thereafter there 

 was a sound of a shot, and the head of the house on 

 whom the drunken man had called lay dead in his yard. 

 This is only a type of the crimes which are committed 

 by those crazed with alcohol, who in their sober mo- 

 ments would be law-abiding and life-respecting citizens. 



It is well known that intoxication has two opposite 

 effects upon its victims: One it makes merry, jovial 

 and companionable; another it makes sullen, morose 

 and dangerous. Possibly the character of the drink 

 also has something to do with the effect, and it does 



