Little Hope for Change, But Present Condition Unsatisfactory Feo ce Own Counsronvient.
San PranciseoJan. 29.
The United States has just completed five years of alleged pro: hibition. So much appears in the wees written either from a biassd yet" or a biassed "dry" angle that not easy for" the person outside "of America to form an curate opinion on the general situation. To the Shanghai resident jan leave coming to America oF passing shyough, it is net easy to oather the wherewithal to satisfy raving for strong drink, and unies tone fe conversant with the ways of
opinion that the country la really may form the Jdry, though at all times in the clubs fand restaurants he will find many people with their flask "on their Ripy'—and he will wonder how they do it.
Prohibition, after five years of ups and downs, is written a failure by the wets, while the drys declare that they are satisfied with the progress being made.
As an old Shanghai man who has been a resident of this country for the last two and a half years, would unhesitatingly say that prohibition has not succeeded. 'The Taw is much honoured in the breach, 'As an Englishman, I am convinced that such a state' of affairs could of go on in Great Britain, for if a law were taken such little notice fof by the nation it would bel regarded as an unworkable law. Ta the United States all classes of the Population break the law, and I am of the opinion, after a good deal of moving up and down the country, that if it were possible to take a true vote in Congress and among the higher-ups, we should find that an alarming percentage consistently break the law.
When I first came to America 1 could not understand the situation. Everywhere one went in his hotel, fin the clubs, in the oafer and! restaurants, there was plenty of drink to be got. Once in a New York hospital, the first day I was! admitted, T was approached by a Jdresser with a view to the purchase! lof a bottle of whiskey wich might, he said, be kept under my bed. I demurred, and he calmly replied that "most of the people round the' hospital take a drink when they' want it" "It might have been an Jexceptional case, buy it is true.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.