city of America that the work chiefly deals. It paints
most thrillingly the darker and more terrible side of social
conditions; where crime and debauchery mingle with poverty; where
every breath of air is heavy with moral contagion. I have only space
to notice briefly two of the great evils described,--the saloon and
the disreputable concert halls, as these seem to me the greatest
curses touched upon.

THE SALOON CURSE.

First in the list of crime-producing, soul-destroying evils of
metropolitan life, rises the saloon, the deadly upas of the nineteenth
century civilization, the black plague of moral life. In Chicago there
are about 5,600 saloons. During the year ending March 1, 1891,
observes the author of "Chicago's Dark Places," the expenditure for
beer in Chicago alone was not less than forty million dollars
($40,000,000). He continues:--

"The population is about 1,200,000. This gives an average
expenditure _for beer alone_ of $33.25 for every man, woman, and
child in Chicago, and these results are gained after the most
conservative figuring. This would give over fifty-three gallons
of beer to be consumed by each man, woman, and child in the city.

"We are told that Germany is a great _beer_-drinking country, and
yet the official statistics for 1888 show that in Germany only
twenty-five gallons per capita were drunk. Our estimate for
Chicago shows more than double that per capita.

"Let us look now and see what this immense sum of $40,000,000
annually spent in beer might do for this city if wisely expended.
It would supply to 40,000 Chicago families an income of $1,000 a
year, or over $83 a month.

"Where would our Chicago poverty be, if $40,000 families were
each spending in legitimate trade $83 a month? Workmen would be
in demand, and business would so increase as to make Chicago in
ten years the leading city on this continent; or, take this money
and spend it directly in building beautiful new homes for the
workingmen of this city, and what should we see?

"Fourteen thousand commodious cottages built at a cost of $2,500
each, on lots which, bought in acreage in a suburban district,
could be deeded to the workingmen at $180 each, and these,
together with a check for another $180, given to each family to
help in furnishing the houses they owned. What an aggregation of
domestic hap