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(all of the text below is from a sheet which accompanied this set of slides)
THE SLAVES OF DRINK.
This picture represents a Committee formed by the Houses of Parliament to receive evidence for and against the granting of the Veto Bill to do away with the Drink Traffic. The picture to the right hand represents the various scenes as they pass before the Committee. In every one of these pictures the Committee always remains exactly the same; while in the cloud which intervenes between them from time to time are shown the different specimens of victims of Intemperance, giving evidence in favour of the passing of some Laws to prohibit the Sale of Drink.
No. 1 - In the present one we have a representation of a Doctor about to perform a surgical operation on a man. He is a man who has held, and who still holds at the time of our story, a very high position in the Medical Profession. He has passed many years of an honourable life doing much to alleviate suffering and restore to health those who have been at the Gates of Death. He has often spent the whole of his nights in visiting his patients, and the greater part of his days in the same work. This has told very much upon him, and his nerves have at times been much strained. In order to keep up with the demand for his services, he has from time to time, for some three years past, been having recourse to stimulants. The quantity which was at first sufficient for him has had to be increased from to time ; and in the present instance, wearied out with his work, he has taken a much larger quantity than usual, with the consequence that he is not quite sensible of what he is doing. He makes a false slip, he bungles over the operation: caused entirely through the Drink which he has been imbibing, and the man dies. From that time, of course, his professional career is ruined. No allowance whatever is made by the public for the man who has rendered years of honourable service ; they only look upon the fact that he has at last been discovered a Victim of Drink, and they will no longer entrust either themselves or their friends to his care.
No. 2. - He rapidly sinks from his high position, lower and lower, till he is reduced, as we see in the picture before us, to the very low calling of selling quack medicines in the street in the most squalid parts of London.
No. 3. - A young Commercial Traveller just starting in life for a well-established city house, with every prospect of rising and making his way in the world. He has a good address, persuasive manners, and for a time obtains large orders from the houses on whom he calls.
No. 4. - As is so usual with Commercials, he spends his evenings in the hotel commercial room with his fellow travellers, mostly playing cards, accompanied with the usual Liquid Refreshment.
No. 5. - For a time this does not have any apparent effect upon him, but continuing year by year he eventually deteriorates in character, owing to the constant libations and the necessity (?) of treating customers in order to secure orders. The time comes when he is no longer a self-reliant man, and has to take a considerable number of drinks before he has the necessary persuasive powers (in his own estimation) to induce people to order. The natural result is that respectable houses soon get disgusted with the man whose appearance and talk is of such a horsey and slangy nature, and who’s bloated face shews that he is constantly addicted to Drink. A great many houses refuse to see him when he calls, and the majority of those with whom he does obtain an interview will not order, as they dislike to have such a man on the premises.
No. 6. - Discharged from his employment he sinks lower and lower in the Social world, till he eventually becomes a Sandwich Man in the street, carrying boards bearing the appropriate title, "Theatre Royal, 'The Road to Ruin.'"
No. 7. - Here we have a very sad picture indeed. A young Girl going along on Crutches, crippled for life, having been struck in a Drunken Fit by her Father. As will be seen by the appearance of the Man himself, he is now quite sober and has been for many months, in fact ever since his Drunken Act caused his Girl to become a Cripple. He has given up Drink, but ever before his eyes he has the effects caused by his Intoxicated Habits, and constantly laments that there should be such things as Public Houses which were the cause of his ruin.
No. 8. - Two Men driving home from the Races, both of them intoxicated. The horse, dashing along at a furious pace, knocks down a feeble old Gentleman, who is attempting to cross the road. He is run over and taken to the Hospital severely injured. The two Men, when brought up at the Police Court the next morning, state that they have not the slightest idea of what has taken place. They did not know that they had run over anybody, and the fact is that they were quite unconscious of what had occurred. Fined 40/-; while the victim is confined to the Hospital for two months.
No. 9. - Here, perhaps, is one of the strongest pleas in support of the Veto Bill which could possibly be brought forward. In the Condemned Cell, under Sentence of Death, is a Man who in his time has been an excellent workman, earning good money, and at one period had a happy home, until from the daily glass of beer which he used to take along with his mates, it gradually increased in quantity, he taking also to spirituous liquors. His wife tried all she could to reclaim him, but in vain; he only seemed to get worse and worse, and one night going home after having spent the week's wages, his wife remonstrates with him, pointing out that there is no money to buy the children bread; and what they are to do for the coming week, except starve, she does not know. Maddened with Drink, he picks up one of the fire-irons and strikes her a violent blow, from the effects of which she dies. He is now about to pay the penalty of his act with his life. Speaking to the Minister in the Condemned Cell, he states the same as the men in No. 8 Picture - that he has not the slightest recollection of hitting his wife, who was very dear to him ; it was the Drink which led him to such an act, for which he is about to pay the extreme penalty of the law.
No. 10. - A picture of a Woman ; no longer, perhaps, entitled to that name, since for some years she taken to Drink and lost all sense of womanhood. She has broken up her husband's home, pawned every movable piece of furniture, run into debt wherever possible, and since the constant craving obliges her (according to her account) to have Drink at any price, she is actually pawning the clothes off her child's back to satisfy her drunken cravings.
No. 11. - Here we have the other side of the picture. The long array of Publicans with their wives and families demanding a hearing, expatiating on the wrongs which Parliament is about to endeavour to do them by ousting them out of their houses without compensation ; depriving them, according to their account, of the means of getting an honest living; demanding rights, which really are no rights whatever, since their licenses are only renewed from year to year and have a right to be cancelled at any time ; yet wishing to be paid fabulous sums of money if they are deprived of the means of ruining so many thousands of the inhabitants of the United Kingdom, filling our Workhouses, Lunatic Asylums, and Prisons through their Houses always being open to supply Drink to those who seem to have insufficient control over themselves to be able to pass by one of these brilliantly lighted Palaces.
No. 12. - Our closing picture shows the long procession of Men, Women, and Children, the Victims of Drink. Many of them are not themselves Drunkards, but person who suffer from the effects of those near and dear to them who have given way to this fearful habit. Amongst the Procession may be seen wretched specimens of humanity on whom the Drink has such a fearful hold, that to go anywhere near a Public House and not to enter seems to them utterly impossible: to whom passing by the door of a refreshment bar is equivalent to going inside, since the very smell of the liquors seems to drag them with iron chains within the door. Many others who have again and again resolutely made up their minds that they will not again give way to the Habit of Drink, and as often as they make these promises, break them. And they ask to have it put out of their power to give way to this habit by the compulsory closing of Public Houses throughout the length and breadth of the land, or at least in those towns where there shall be a sufficient portion of the inhabitants to say that these Drink Shops in their district shall be done away with. There are Men and Women here asking what is the good of having a vote at all; if they are in favour of having these Public Houses closed, the vote yet avails not, and against their own will they have pressed upon them and ever placed before them, at every few yards, places which entice them to drink, and which they feel that of their own will they are not able to keep away from. This is a question which demands each day more and more a careful hearing and a fair but resolute answer, and it is hoped that before long the popular opinion of England may be sufficiently strong that the Legislators of this country shall pass into law that where there is a sufficient number of people in any town to say that these Drink Shops shall be done away with, that they shall have the means at their disposal to close these places which are such a terrible temptation and snare to so many.
