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A Suggestive Catechism

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International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 16, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 16.

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A Suggestive Catechism.

Question.—What is the population of the city of New York?
Answer.—1,206,299.
Q.—How many places of religious worship in the city?
A.—489.
Q.—How much is annually required for their support?
A.—$3,000,000.
Q.—On an equal division, how many men, women, and children to each church?
A.—2,466.
Q.—How many liquor-drinking places in the city?
A.—9,075 licensed, and more than 1,000 unlicensed; over 10,000 in all.
Q.—How much is annually spent in them?
A.—$60,000,000, or twenty times more than for the support of the churches.
Q.—How many grog-shops to every 120 men, women, and children?
A.—One.
Q.—How many men, women, and children to every church?
A.—2,466. One church for every 2,466, and one grog shop for every 120.
Q.—How many persons were arrested and committed to the city prison by the police in 1882?
A.—44,578.
Q.—How many of these were of intemperate habits?
A.—33,432, or three-fourths of the whole number.
Q.—How much did the city treasury receive as fees for the licensure of these 9,075 drinking places in 1882?
A.—$500,000.
Q.—How much did the city treasury expend during the same time for cost of police, the courts, and charities, directly and indirectly, chargeable to the liquor traffic?
A.—$9,000,000.
Q.—Is it a wise municipal economy to license, patronize, or tolerate a business which requires an expenditure of eighteen dollars for every one received?
A.—Such is the opinion and practice of some.
Q.—What about the crimes of violence, the destitution, the neglect, the tears, the sorrows, the wretchedness, the lost hopes, the lost souls, and woes occasioned by this losing business, the blackest this side of the bottomless pit?
A.—What do the liquor-dealers, the patrons of the grog-shops, and their apologists care for all that is involved in such questions?—Sel.