The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-12-29
DRINKING NINETY YEARS AGO.
I'm q New York Tavern i'm 1794-De.
cency at the Dinner Table.
New York Times ]

SCibdiu auNCutuiCS VI DAillao OoN"AAh
in New York recalling tavern life, the
kind Of food served and the customs of
the period, are worth repeating. Savarin
calls the house of entertainment cafe
taverne, and states that the one he went
to, kept by Little, twas famous for its
turtle-soup served during the day with
other refreshments such as are in usage
in the United States during the evening"
In 1894 Welsh rarebit was, apparently,
very much in vogue. Savarin translates
it "lapin gallois." ut is nothing like as
good as real rabbit" says the great gas
tronomer, but as it provokes thirst, it
makes the wine taste better"
The Frenchman is invited to a dinner
by some English gentlemen, the guest
having the privilege of calling in an
equal number Of Frenchmen for the re-
past, so Savarin finds out it is rather to
take the character of drinking bout; in
fact, the two nationalities are to be
pitted against one another as to their
absorbing qualities. Now, your true
gourmand, as was the author of the
"Physiologie du Gout," was the most
moderate of. men. He knew quite we'll
that excess of wine singularly mars the
delicacy of taste. 1t might not have
been exactly fair of Savarin on this occa-
sion, but with his nationality at stake, he
gives the soundest advice to his compatri-
OTIS They may drink, but very little at
a time, and they are not to oOeat too much
at the beginning of their dinner, because
"the act of digestion, if properly man
aged. prevents wine flying to the head"
The giver of the feast being from ia
maica, and as West Ind ans one hundred
years ago were famous for their bibulous
qualities, it can be understood that the
amphytrion was dangerous adversary.
The dinner was sound one, varying lit
tie from tavern dinner Of to-day. There
was no soup, nor fish, but an enormous
piece of roast beef, a roast turkey, veget-
ables, a cabbage salad (cold slaw, posi-
bly,, and pie. Wine drinking COM
menced at once. Claret (clairet) was
served Of good quality, and Savarin
vaunts its excellence and cheapness, re.
marking "that just at that time several
cargoes of French wines having arrived,
and being difficult to sell, they could be
bought for almost nothing" The man
from Jamaica with his two English
friends ate like ogres and drank like fish
from the very start, but Savarin and the
4 Frenchmen were more circumspect. AT.
ter the claret came port wine, as in the
old style, and then Madeira
The Frenchmen kept on eating like
young ladies, and slipping their wine in
bird-like style, occasionally a beer-jug
concealed under the table, receiving the
contents Of the Frenchmen's glasses
With the dessert came butter and che se
with nuts, and among them Savarir
speaks of the "d'ycory." All being good
royalists, with certain philosophical ideas
the king, the liberty of the people, and
the ladies are toasted. After the wine
came the spirits, as brandy and cordials
and with "rassades" of these compounds
singing commenced. ~ knew" writes
Savarin, "that if my party INDUCED in
spirits they were gone. asked fol
punch, and it was the host himself who
brought in bowl that would have been
sufficient for the wants of forty persons
We do not have in France vases of that
same size."
Then it was that the wary Frenchman
master in the art Of drinking, devel
oped his tactics. He looked around him
The West Indian and his English friends
were crimson in the face, while til.
Frenchmen we're still in their norma
condition, all wisely engaged in picking
the ycory nuts. Savarin knew that thu
downfall of the English was near. Savarir
and his friends now went in vigorously
for the bread and cheese-and Savarin
, always ready to record the excellence O
} any thing, expatiates on the excellence
of the butter. Eating now for the frs
time, with decided appetite, the French
men drink the punch The English tr,
, to sing "Rule Britannia" but onl!
, blunder through the first verse, and then
! one by one, sink under the table. :"
never had such a victory. rang tn
bell; Little came in person, and l request
ed him to take the best care of the gen
tlemen. The walters carried them of
, though the person from Jamaica kept Of
! singing Rule Britannia Next day tn
, New York papers gave ap account Of ou
+ victory, which story went all the round
of the American press. When mex
saw the giver Of the feast, who was i'll 0
the gout, he said to me: %. dear, sir, yo,
2 are very good company, indeed, but to
+ hard a drinker for u.s."
This dinner in a New York taver
Q some eighty-fve years ago is in no wa
! exaggerated. Undoubtedly men dram
hard at dinners in those days, both i
England and the United States, and
/. be very much intoxicated after Dime
, was thought quite in keeping with tn
s character of a well-bred man. In Franc,
however, even before the time CT tn
regency, excessive use of wines was col
' sidered by gentlemen to be a vulgarit.
1t was not moral conjunction which pr
j. vented indulgence; far from that, but
was simply not la mode to do 80.
e we consult the annals of that much d
u praved period it will be found, strangel
!. enough, that tippling among French W
men was verv common. and even san