The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1886-08-12
LAGER BEER.
The Epormous Increase in Its Consump
tion During the Last Ten or Fif-
teen Years.


teen Years.
TIE enormous increase in the con-
sumption of lager beer within the last
ten or fifteen years may be considered
as one of the marvels of trade. Scarce
ly more than ten years ago its use was
almost exclusively confined to the Ger
man element and to those of central
Europe who have settled among US.
The American was utterly unfamiliar
with it, it was only to be found for sale
in saloons kept by Germans, for Ger
mans, and, if mentioned at all by the
non-Ierman section of the community
was only to be spoken of in q disparag-
ing way as something unworthy of SER
ious consideration as proper beverage
for self-respecting American citizens.
For quite a number of years saloons
kept by Irishmen and Americans con-
sidered it as implying low class of
trade. Whenever it was found among
it had begun to work its way into par
tlal favor with their customers, many of
them could only be forced to the coma
promise by keeping their supply in bot
ties. Gradually and steadily it has
grown into general favor, until from be-
ing the tipple of one of the foreign ele-
ments of the community, only known
to the general public to be disparaged
or even despised, it has taken rank as
the national beverage-par excellence.
At the present day no bar-room or place
of public entertainment, from the first
class hotel to the lowest dive, is without
it. No gathering of pleasurable or So
cial nature is properly catered to wnere
it is omitted from the list of refresh
ments. No workingman's dinner is
complete without the pint" and no
private cellar is completely stocked that
has not in its bins supply of bottles or
ether convenient packages. No longer
are the devoted subjects of Gambrinus
Rex to be found exclusively among the
fair-haired children of ''Vaterland"
The American, with his faculty of know
ing a good thing when he sees it. and
the singular readiness with which he
adapts himself to any custom or taste
that commends itself to him, long since
enrolled himself as one of the loyal
heges of the jolly monarch. The French
man and the Italian, though they still
cherish love for the win ordinaire"
or the "vino scinto" of their respective
netherlands, take kin dly to lager, and
pledge their loyalty in frequent foaming
measures. The Irishman, of all of our
heterogeneous community, most cordial
ly despised and openly denounced the
foamlng beverage of the monarch's fol-
lowers, but are now counted among
those whose loyalty, as attested by emu
lation of the example of Gambrinus in
endeavoring to dispose of every measure
OF beer placed in convenient form with
in his reach, is never to be brought into
question. Even the Englishman, though
he still sticks, with the tenacity of his
race. to his ''glass O. hale" will occas-
ionally put of. his growing humor and
all nationalities, and all classes of
society, from the tramp to the million
aire, from the man about town to the
college professor openly or secretly
quaff their draughts of the amber liquid,
with the comforting consciousness that
they are indulging a weakness common
to a very large majority of the inhabi-
tants of this great American republic.
There are those who argue that beer
drinking community is less given TO in
toXicatiOn, and that even the intoxica-
ton which ensues from over-indulgence
in beer is less likely to be of a violent
character than that which ensues from
similar indulgence in spirituous
liquors. Statistics collected in England
and France, and in local instances in
the United States, have gone to prove
that an increase in consumption in malt
liquors, when accompanied by de-
crease in the consumption of spirituous
liquors, is usually attended by marked
decrease IN the number of crimes of vio-
lent character committed in communi-
ties, but whether this decrease of crime is
due to the change of the form of drink
or to a superior acquired intelligence
that caused that change in the habits of
the individuals statistics can not prove.
1t has been clearly proven by the re-
searches of chemical analysis and those
learned in the scientific treatment of the
human body that the use of properly
prepared malt liquors in the form of
aleS, porter, and beer is beneficial to the
human system and conducive to mans
comfort and solace; therefore any cir
cumstances that lead to its increased
use, to the exclusion Of other beverages
that the history of centuries of misery,
vice, and crime prove to be deleterious
to mans moral and physical condition,
are worthy of encouragement. 1t is then
with genuine pleasure that the notable
increase in the use of light beers should
be hailed by this community, and every
facility should be given to those who
are endeavoring to foster it.
To a casual observer it would seem
almost unaccountable that while lager
beer has within the time specified been
pushing itself forward into public favor,
and piling up enormous fortunes for the
lucky brewers who took advantage of
the change of public taste and catered
to it at the proper moment, the consump-
ton of ale has either decreased or re-
manned at a standstill.
A careful inquiry into this fact has
opened a wide field of important re-
search, and has led the writer to the
conclusion that a revolution in the ale
trade has not only been accomplished
almost unnoticed by the community,
but that another of still greater import
ance and of further reaching consequent
ces is imminent and possible of success.
The increase in the brewing of beer in
the past ten or fifteen years is some
thing enormous. In 1885 there was
sold in the city of Brooklyn and New
York 4,644,237 barrels of malt liquor.
In the United States there was consuln-
ed 19,642,370 barrels of malt liquor.
giving the two cities mentioned over 21
per cent of the entire amount consumed
in the United States. In 1882 there
were sold 16,616.364, showing an in
crease of 3,026,50 barrels, or II per
cent in two years. For the last two
years reliable statistics are easily reach
ed-BrookLyn Eagle.