The Greatest Saloon-Keeper.
The Quincy (Illinois) Herald of May 20 has an elaborate article showing that the czar of Russia "owns a larger number of wine stores and spirit saloons than any other individual in the universe." He has over 30,000 drinking saloons ("kabaks"), controls 4,000 spirit factories, and gathers in nearly $400,000,000 yearly. The increase in his income for 1910 was $6,000,000 more than the year before. The lowest license to sell the miserable stuff is $200 a year. The czar has the monopoly in manufacture and sale. Kabaks are opened by royal decree; there must be at least one in every village. In some communes where part of the saloons were closed and schools opened, the police closed the schools and opened the saloons. No wonder that gospel Christian missionaries are persecuted or driven out. But Russia reaps drunkenness and crime in her army, suicides among the people, squalor and poverty, an unmitigated curse in every way.