uin which he
sees overtaking the social happiness of his country. The saloon is
subtly corrupting the men of America, and the ghastly plagues of
selfishness, brutality, and immorality are spreading with cruel
swiftness. The great author's conclusion is more than startling, and I
confess to having caught my breath when I read it. He says in effect,
"We sacrificed a million men in order to do away with slavery, but we
now have working in our midst a curse which is infinitely worse than
slavery. 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. A hoarse crashing babble goes steadily on, forming
the ground-bass of an odious symphony; shrill and discordant laughter
rises by fits and starts above the low tumult; a coarse joke sets one
group sniggering; a vile oath rings out from some foul-mouthed
roysterer; and at intervals some flushed and bleared creature breaks
into a slavering laugh which has a sickly resemblance to weeping. At one
of the side-tables a sodden brute leans forward and wags his head to and
fro with ignoble solemnity; another has fallen asleep and snores at
intervals with a nauseous rattle; smart young men, dressed fashionably,
fling chance witticisms at the busy barmaids, and the nymphs answer with
glib readiness. This is the hom