Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1881-12-21
The Story of Alcohol.

A certain writer tells us when alcohol
was inUsnted That will hlr.llv do. We
might AS well talk of the invention of oxv.
gen. But men have invented methods by
which those elements or substances nav
be developed. The first man to produce
alcohol by mechanical Appliance was an
Arab-son of strange, soothsayng wO-
man named Hagar, who lived somewhere
about a thousand years ago. Before that
time old wine had been made very strong;
but, so far as We can learn, distilled spirits
had not been known There is reason to
believe, however, that the Bjrharians of
the North OF Europe had contrived to OBJ
tain very strong liquor by the process of
freesing, long before distillaton was
known. By accident a man discovered
that the liquor drawn from u mass of froz.
en- wine was much stronger than the orig
inal wine. A cask of wine, exposed TO
temperature far below zero, had frozen,
apparently, solid; but he broke the mass
by vigorously punching and stirring, and
was enabled to draw off goo lily quantty
of beautiful wine-strong and smooth, and
wondrously exhilarating. And 20 he con
tinued to stir the icy mass, and draw off
the wine until no more would run Final
lv, when the weather became warm enough
to thaw the ice that had been left in the
cask, 10 and behold only weak, almost
tasteess water was found to have been left
behind So he had found II way in which
to extract the alcohol property Of his wine.
From Arabia the secret of dstillatiOn
went to Venice, and thence to all parts of
the enlightened world. In the sixteenth
century distilled spirits had come into use
throughout Europe. The first account we
have of its being used rs beverage was
by the laborers in the Hungarian mines,
in the fifteenth century. Until the sixteenth
century, rs a general thing it was in use
among the people only as medicine, and
was kept by the apothecaries. The wine-
sellers and keepers of cafes had nothing
to do with it. As late as l75l it was used
1--WE speak of trong distilled sprits) in
the English army only as cordial.
During the first of the Tudors (Henry
VII.) distilled spirit was not known in
Ireland. When, however, it had been
introduced upon the Green Island It's
alarming effects became so quickly apper-
ent that government made laws prohibit
ing its manufacture. They could shut out
foreign spirits.
In the sixteenth centsry it was intro.
duced into the American Colonies Its
story here is very well known What s
thing it was to put into the hands of the
Indians! As late as the last century, nnf
even into the beginning of the present, i
was given out to the soldiers and sailors
of our Christian armies and nlvies, under
the firm belief that it WAS a preventive o
sickness. and that it made men bold anC
courageous on the field of oatte
Such is the story of the introduction of al
cohol-of distilled spirits-into the world
but the story of the creature itself, th'
story of its effects wherever it has gained
friendly recep,ion-is written in tear
and blood; in anguish and living pain; II
tortures, and pain OF death; IN curses an'
: howlings of despair; its course is flauke'
with crime OF every hue and grade; an'
7 sutferings such as the world never knew
before its advent o.! who can tell tn
+ awful storyp We stand appalled, in tn
contemplation, and can only hope hat
4 somewhere, and at sometime, there ma.
be Better Life !-SeLectcd