Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1874-06-17
Fifty Years Ago and Now.
BY JOHN F. COLES, BOSTON.

Fifty years ago the habitual use of intox-
icatiDg drinks was very much more preva-
lent and widely diffused than it is now
Total abstinence was cOmparately un-
known. and temperance meant any condi-
ton on the sober side of absolute drunken
ness. Every family-even the most relig-
ious, refined, and abstemious, kept store
of liquors in the house. and considered the
demiiohn and decanter as Indispensable
to good housekeeping rs the flour barrel
and pork tub. Everybody took their reg
ular drinks either at home or abroad, and
the Old South Church bell rung regularly
every week day mt II o'clock, which was
universally understood signal for master
and man, merchant and laborer, Journey
man and apprentice to hurry to the cup
board, closet or grocery for the much
coveted and Mountaineering dram. In
many. if not most, large workshops where
lost time was avoided, the youngest ap-
prentice was dispatched to bring drinks
for the crowd, and he was considered Il
dull boy who did not get 1.-TWO fingers :"
from the bottom of the bottle, if indeed he
did not forestall mischances by 8 sampling''
the beverage on the stairway or in the
entry before delivery. To make a call
upon any we'll regulated family, was Il
signal for the matron to bring out her
fine cut decanters and glasses and sugar
bowl. | notice the sugar bowl, because
everybody in those days, both diluted and
sweetened their liquors. and it would have
been IA marvel to see man take his rum,
Gin or brandy meat rs almost every
drinker does nowadays. Though liquors
were purer then than now for our fathers
had not learned the refined arts of adulter-
ation-they were considered unpalatable
/ and unwhOleSome in the raU state and
hence sugar and water, and sometimes
spices. :. Old folks at home,n male and
! female, were wont to indulge in grog," ,"
the most abstemiouS at least twice day
at IL A. NJ. and p. NJ, the last as u . night
cap" This tipple-supposed then to be
very nourishing, was made Ola gill of St.
Croix (Santa CRUZ rum, with double its
quantity of hot water and plentifuIly
sugared To this a slice of bread, we'll
toasted, was crumbed in and the whole sur
mounted by layer of nutmeg. Fifteen
minutes simmering on one side the fire
place made this Il very tOothsome bevcr-
age, as | well remember, and do some
hundreds of other old surviving Bos-
tonians like myself usued to watch
eagerly for the sweetened bottom of the
glass" which was always looked upon as
the children's perqusite.
In those days bar-rooms were few, IL
quors were sold at retail in every grocery
in the city. A little screen, scarcely aver
aging more than five feet square, separated
the : bar" from the store proper, and
children on errands were constantly
thrown into temptation by the mudli1
affection of the topers behind the screen
who considered it a very kindly action to
regale the little ones with the sugared bot
tom of their glasses. Some of these gro
ceries even had Il supply of diminutivt
glasses for the express purpose of selling
boys two cents nippers of cordials, anist
seed, noyau, ETC., and if they were manly
enough to stand it, the stronger liquors
such as gin, rum and brandy. Iremem
ber often to have seen groups of little boys
myself among the number, standing or
tiptoe before a bar and calling for drinks
and disposing of the same with all the
gusto of old topers and feeling proud at thu
supposed manliness of the feat. 1t was a
such places and in those times that the
roots of the cancer intemperance wer
fixed and grounded, and it is a wonder an,
marvel, that the whole generation did no
become drunkards.
pure in those days, for the reason that the
were so cheap as to offer no remunerativ
inducement for adulteration. The best Q
LIQUORS could be had at three cents per glas
at bar-rooms and groceries, and at 6 l =
at hotels and taverns. Pure gin and run
were less than a dollar a gallon, and goo
brandy not more than two, while Ne,
England Rum better than ordinary moder
,,h;Sl-a1, could he had for tWentv-fiye cent
per gallon.
o How far religious opinion influenced tn
, habits of the people, can be learned by re
, ference to the testimonials of preacher
, themselves, which l copy from their &C
:, Meeting in Massachusetts,, the exact plac
and date of which, neglected to note
y &" DR.. Wood, of Andover, said that fort
years ago he stood on Andover hill an
g counted forty drinking ministers.
= "Rev. Geo. w. Quimby said that forty
: five or fifty years ago. in town nor twer
r ty-five miles from Boston, there was
! church of which half the members wei
. drunkards and the other half moderat
drinkers. The clergyman and one deaco
: were appointed committee to call on til
drunkards of the society with view to n
), form them. The worthy brothers sped Q
= their benevolent mission, and being invi
! ! ed to drink at every house, went hon
! beastly drunk before they reached half tt
!. houses of the offending members.
:, = DR.. E. Hays of Northfeld, declare
: that at one time or another forty years ag
he had seen every legal voter in the tow
! drunk. Another gentleman said that for
years ago he had seen member of a Coz