Drunkenness and Child Cruelty
A DRUNKARD's home in New York was entered by the officers of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to children on March 29. A more deplorable spectacle than that which met their eyes can scarcely be imagined. They found a man and his wife lying on the floor drunk, while their four children, varying in age from nine to two years old, were playing about the room. The woman was so drunk that she could not be roused, and was taken to the station-house in a cart. The room was filthy in the extreme, and very scantily furnished. The children were filthy and dressed in rags, and had a half-starved appearance. The youngest child was found to be suffering from severe burns on the lower portion of his body, which it is said, were received by his having been dropped on a hot stove by his mother. Yet these people once moved in respectable society, and were connected with a Christian church. What a terrible indictment is accumulating against this traffic in intoxicating liquors! Satan has no more efficient ally on this earth than this liquid fiend.