There goes a young man, handsomely dressed,
evidently the son of a rich family, unable to stand by himself, and
piloted by a friend whose chief care is to avoid the police. There is a
clerk, whose habits will soon lose him his situation. Here is a woman,
well dressed, too, reeling along at a rate which will soon carry her
into the arms of the policeman. The high and the low are represented on
the streets.
The bar-rooms and beer-gardens are in full blast, and will not close
until midnight. The better class establishments are quiet and orderly,
but the noise and confusion increases as we descend the scale of the
so-called respectability of these places. The sale of liquors is
enormous, and the work of destruction of body and soul that is going on
is fearful. The bar-rooms, beer-gardens, restaurants, clubs, hotels,
houses of ill-fame, concert-halls and dance-houses, are doing an
enormous trade, and thousands are engaged in the work of poisoning
themselves with drink.
[Illustration: A fashionable New Yorker--too much wine.]
Respectable men patronize the better class bar-rooms, and respectable
women the ladies' restaurants. At the latter places a very large amount
of money is spent by women for drink. Wives and mothers, and even young
girls, who are ashamed to drink at home, go to these fashionable
restaurants for their liquor. Some will drink it openly, others will
disguise it as much as possible.
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