An Awful Temperance Lecture
A REVOLTING discovery was made in Leeds three weeks ago. The people occupying houses around a dwelling at Briggate, had for several days noticed an overpowering odor, which threatened, if not abated, to spread fever. The sanitary authorities made the necessary investigation, and soon discovered its cause. In an attic they found an elderly man in a state of delirium tremens, and totally unconscious of his surroundings. The room contained not a particle of food or furniture, but huddled up in one corner was the dead body of the drunkard's wife. At the inquest it was learned that the deceased had been confined a week previous, and her husband had failed to pay the necessary attention to the poor woman, who died two days after in the presence of her seven-year-old daughter. The occurrence has caused considerable comment in the London papers. It is an awful temperance lecture, and Dickens in his most graphic description of the squalor, crime, and misery of the lower classes in England, never painted a more awful picture. The Government is not doing its duty towards these unfortunates.