There are 300,000 people, in London, divided into families that live in single rooms, while there are 900,000 who are illegally housed according to the Public Health Act of 1891--a respectable recruiting-ground for the drink traffic.
Then there are the insecurity of happiness, the precariousness of existence, the well-founded fear of the future--potent factors in driving people to drink.

Wretchedness squirms for alleviation, and in the public- house its pain is eased and forgetfulness is obtained.

It is unhealthy.
Certainly it is, but everything else about their lives is unhealthy, while this brings the oblivion that nothing else in their lives can bring.

It even exalts them, and makes them feel that they are finer and better, though at the same time it drags them down and makes them more beastly than ever.

For the unfortunate man or woman, it is a race between miseries that ends with death.
It is of no avail to preach temperance and teetotalism to these people.
The drink habit may be the cause of many miseries; but it is, in turn, the effect of other and prior miseries.