The Drunkard's Children 1

Abstract

In 1848 George Cruikshank produced this series as a sequel to his extraordinary successful The Bottle. The story of The Drunkard’s Children, also a very widely reprinted and copied set of images, shows the ruin of the lives of the next generation, with crime, prostitution, and suicide all resulting from early familiarisation with drink.

PLATE I. – Neglected by their parents, education only in the streets, and falling into he hands of wretches who live upon the vices of others, they are led to the gin shop, to drink at that fountain which nourishes every species of crime.