[philiphodgen]

Perhaps the article says more about the publisher — and journalistic practices generally — than it says about the Great Americans Drinking Public.

A quick look finds this throughly unscientific statistic:

> In 1790, United States government figures showed that annual per-capita alcohol consumption for everybody over fifteen amounted to thirty-four gallons of beer and cider, five gallons of distilled spirits, and one gallon of wine.

http://www.history.org/Foundation/journal/Holiday07/drink.cf...

People who keep yelling “Scary Monsters Under the Bed” can be ignored.