2,378 “Black Spots on the Mersey

Abstract

This article drawing attention to statistics of child drunkenness in Liverpool was printed in the children’s magazine Onward in 1894. Such statistics were also shared in magazines for adults and non-temperance, mainstream, newspapers.

2,378 “BLACK SPOTS ON THE MERSEY.”

LIVERPOOL is known as “the Black Spot on the Mersey,” and its record of arrests for juvenile drunkenness last year fully sustains its title to the appellation. Let the printer set this table in his blackest mourning border, that the reader may see at a glance the depth of this shadow :-

CHILDREN TAKEN UP DEAD DRUNK! IN 1893.

Under 10 years … 113
“ 12 “ … 228
“ 14 “ … 455
“ 16 “ … 615
“ 18 “ … 967
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2,378
“What terrible homes those poor children must have,” said Mr. Callender Moss, referring to the above at a Band of Hope meeting at Southport. Why, we almost shudder to think of them. No need to wonder at “lapsed masses” while in so many homes the children pass from the cradle into the toils of the Drink Demon.