A Drunken Child

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Dec 23, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 49.

ONE of the most painful things which has come to our notice of late, as showing the blighting curse of intoxicating liquors, is one reported by the Atlanta (Georgia) Journal. It was a drunken child, barely five years old, blue-eyed, golden-haired, but drunk, stupidly, foolishly drunk. When arrested she was laughing and talking in a wild and reckless manner. She was taken to the station-house till she became sober from the beer and whisky she had drunk. Mother had died four weeks before, and father gone, but who is responsible for the education of the child is not stated. When asked who gave her beer, she answered:

"Everybody. I drinks beer and toddy all the time. My sister can drink this house full of beer," the baby prattled on, "and I love beer. It's nice ain't it?" And she laughed merrily.

And this little five-year-old, blue-eyed baby, with its leering laugh, crazy speech, and blood-shot eyes, is but a type of thousands of other cases perishing throughout the world through rum.