Health and Temperance

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 30, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 50.

Health and Temperance.

Wine and Pauperism.

SOME people, “as much opposed to intemperance as anybody,” advocate the wine-cure as a remedy for drunkenness. They eulogize the wine countries. Paris is the capital of a wine country, yet the pauperism in that city has doubled in the last twenty-five years. The London Standard notes the fact that “official statistics just published show an alarming increase of pauperism at Paris during the last twenty-five years. In 1861, when the suburbs were incorporated with Paris proper, the number of families requiring relief was 36,713, comprising 90,287 persons. The majority of them had been punished either as vagabonds, for thieving, or other crimes. Sixteen years later, in 1877, when the republic had taken the place of the empire, the number of pauper families had increased to 39,866. The growth of pauperism was even more marked during the following three years, the statistics showing that in 1880 no fewer than 46,815 families, comprising 125,735 members, were depending upon relief. At the beginning of the present year 180,000 persons were known to be in want of assistance. From 1861 to 1886, consequently, the number of paupers has been doubled.” An abundance of wines has not brought the millennium to Paris, nor would it do anything but impoverish and pauperize the people of our own country.—Temperance Advocate.