Belgium’s Excessive Drinking

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 25, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 12.

Belgium’s Excessive Drinking

The Belgians have gained the unenviable reputation of being the heaviest drinkers in Europe. Official statistics show that each person, women and children included, consumes two hundred and forty quarts of beer, and thirteen quarts of spirits, annually. To such an extreme has the bibulous habits of the people been carried that the Government has become seriously alarmed at the situation, and restrictive measures are to be put into operation. The right to collect by legal process debts incurred in drinking houses has been abolished; it is forbidden to sell drink to persons under sixteen years of age, and to sell anyone liquor until he is drunk, is made a crime. —Saratoga Union.