Retail Dealers 5,922.

The population of the State by the same authority was placed at 1,721,295, which would give an average of 290 persons to each vender of intoxicating liquors. The home production of distilled. Spirits was 2,287,285 gallons, of beer and ale 368,968 barrels, and of other alcoholic mixtures 95,000 cases, or about nine gallons to every man, woman and child in Missouri. What of this is retained and what exported cannot be positively known; neither do we know how much more is surreptitiously made which passes no inspection. A close approximation to the actual consumption can, however, be made by a comparison of the licensed dram shop sales of other like communities with our own. Thus, an estimate based on extended statistics in several of the Middle States, shows that each retail dealer must take in not less than $5,000 a year, gross receipts, to support a saloon with its incidental expense of stock, rent and attendance. This corresponds too with other information derived from the retailers themselves, and with the statement put forward in their memorials demanding a reduced license. It is further confirmed by Superintendent Kennedy, of New York, who placed police at 223 licensed dram shops, and found the average visits were 134 daily, with an expenditure of from $16 to $18, or more than $6,200 a year. As this is