Rum in Madagascar

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 6, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 10.

Rum in Madagascar.

The Rev. G. A. Shaw writes to the Pall Mall Gazette that over 10,000 barrels of rum, each containing between forty and fifty gallons, have been imported in one year along the east coast of Madagascar. "Frequently in these hamlets along the coast, if the traveler arrives late, he will be distressed and horrified to find that the demon of the rum-barrel has been before him, and the people are all more or less under its influence. Frequently have I entered a village after sundown only to find every person in it drunk, and even the little children staggering in their play a round the fire or in the moonlight. In the village to which I have conducted you, there were on my first visit but six houses, each of which was supplied with a large stock of rum; and while I sat at my evening meal a young urchin of perhaps ten or eleven years of age came in with a small piece of silver which he tendered for the purchase of this vile spirit, and had I not been present, I have not the least doubt the child would have been supplied."