Prospectus of the Silver-Track Dramway of Pennsylvania

“For the Consideration of the People and their Legislators.”

This uncommon Temperance leaflet was authored by Josiah W. Leeds and published by the Temperance Association of Friends of Philadelphia in the mid-1880s. The ‘Silver-Track Dramway’ referenced in the title outlines the notion that the state of Pennsylvania could be circled (twice) with a border of silver dollars for the price of just one year of the state’s annual liquor consumption (pegged at $78 million).

Text on the back page, titled What One Year’s Liquor-Waste Would Do, outlines the civic possibilities of the $60 million booze budget spent allegedly spent by Pennsylvanians annually. If every Keystone Stater just put down the bottle, the costs could theoretically cover 200 public libraries, over 2,000 public schoolhouses, 125 soup kitchens, 5 orphan asylums, 25,000 acres of public parks, 100 industrial schools, 300 houses of worship, 20 public hospitals, and much more.