A MODEL TOWN.
"Could we but do away with intemperance, the conditions of living would become so changed that we should hardly know ourselves," said John Bright on a memorable occasion. What would the country be like without public-houses? We can form some idea of the altered state of affairs by taking a trip to the model town of Bessbrook in the county of Armagh. Here we shall find a thriving, populous community without any public-house or place for the sale of intoxicating liquor. It owes its origin to the philanthropic prescience of the late John Grubb Richardson, a wealthy member of the Society of Friends. In the early 'sixties he purchased an estate of some sixty thousand acres, and there erected the factory which is now world-famed as the Bessbrook Flax Spinning Mills. Approaching the town from Newry, the spinning mills form the most prominent feature in the view. The immense range of lofty buildings is of noble proportions, and for massive elegance compares very favourably with similar erections in the Lancashire and Yorkshire factory districts. When the mills are in full work, occupation is afforded for about five thousand hands. The chief feature of the model town is a handsome square. There are several shops in addition to the co-operative stores, and the houses are well built, varying in size, every family being accommodated with three to six rooms, according to the number of its members. There is an institute with a capital library, a recreation room, a dispensary, excellent schools under the supervision of the National Board of Education, a savings bank, and half-a-dozen places of worship, the respective congregations supporting the current expenses. The sale of intoxicating liquors is entirely prohibited, and, as a consequence, there is not only an absence of drunkenness, but a general freedom from the legion of evils which seem inseparable from the liquor traffic. There is no resident police officer, and it is only quite recently that there has been any police perambulation of the model town, this latter being due more to political disturbances in the near neighbourhood than to any outbreak of crime on the part of the inhabitants of Bessbrook itself. The North of Ireland thus furnishes an excellent example of how to make the working classes thrifty, sober, industrious, happy and prosperous.
THE TOWN HALL, BESSBROOK.
(Photo: Cuwell and Co., Ltd.)
A VIEW OF BESSBROOK.