Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-06-15
SMALL BEER AND BOOKS.
How New EnsIand's Favorite Beverage
Is Distilled from Weird ingredients.


TEE FAMOUS ROoT-BEER, ITS HISTORY AND MAN
UTAcTURE-rENPERANcED RISKs-pREvESTINa
THE SPREAD OF DISEASES THROUGH BOOKS
BANKING FOR THE CHINESE LAUNDRYMEN.
Special Correspondence Of The EVENING STAR
BosToS, June 1.-THE praises of the bean
that sublime vegetable which nourishes the
grey matter contained within the modern
Athenian skQll-have oft-times been sung; but
who has told in print the story of that won
drous beverage, roOt-beer, which accompanies
the aforesaid delicacy the Bostonian table
a. naturally nectar went with the ambrosia
Of the gods?
Root beer is the beverage OF New England
Par excellence. In early times the frugal Puri-
tans were accustomed to distill 1t for them
selves from such roots and leaves Of supposed
medicinal value as we're 10 be grubbed for and
gathered on the hills, and to this day their de-
scendants keep up an annual manufacture OF
the article for home consumption. Recipes
for making IL of unusual quality are handed
down in families for generations. and in nearly
every village ~ an old woman whose brew Is
famous for miles around. Although to the un-
educated palate the flavor Of the stuff is simply
horrible, the enlightened New Highlander re-
CARDS il as inexpressibly delicious. 1t is drank
here on all occasions, though more particularly
In the spring, as an Alternative and tonic. For
the native of these parts Is strongly impressed
with the curious popular notion that every per-
SON. however well, should submit to a regular
course of dosing as soon as the warm weather
comes each year, If health is to be main
tain ed.
Root beer is sold over the Temperance bars"
here by the thousands Of glasses daily. 1t is
also put up-the ingredients of II, that Is to
say-in half-pound packages and marketed
thus in enormous quantities. A parcel of this
size will make i've gallons of beer. The con-
tents are boiled with that much water, and four
pounds of sugar are added with pint of yeast.
Finally, the resulting solution is strained and
fermented for IL hours and then bottled. This
develops an agreeable alcoholic element. which
is not the less pleasant for being disguised so
artfully that its consumption in this shape
could not bring blush of embarrassment to
the cheek of the most pious church deacon, if
caught i'll the act.
WHERE THE ROOTS COME FROM.
The ingredients of this dry stock for brew
ing root-beer are multitudinous. Chief among
them, however, are wintergreen. spikeuard,
checkerberry, dsndelion, sarsaparille, juniper
and hops. In old times about all these things
grew wild on the hills of New England, and
profusely enough to supply the demand. But
most of them have been nearly exterminated
by pickers and grubbers, and so at present
makers OF the package stock get the greater
part of what they need from North Carolina
and do the mixing themselves. In that state
there is a vast mountainous region, which is
the most remarkable country in the world for
the natural production of incidentally valued
vegetables of a thousand kinds. The gather
ing Of these is, in fact, a great and profitable
industry with the people there, and is
especially pursued by the Indians. who have
Q government reservation in the neighbor-
hood of the Black mountains, on the sides of
which such plants grow so plentifully as TO be
practically inexhaustible. The pickers sell
what they gather to big firms in the towns,
which collect the crop thus obtained by a sort
of contract system. The said firms employ
skilled botanists to sort it, and the various
herbs, barks and things, after being properly
cleaned, dried, or otherwise prepared, are put
up in barrels and bales ready for market. Each
firm sends out circulars to apothecaries and
other dealers all over the United States, giving
information as TO the variety of goods it has on
hand, with prices attached. and soliciting Or
ders- The retail men everywhere get what
they want In this way, put up in boxes and sell
1t to the customer at an enormous profit. or
perchance make medicines of il. In no other
part of the world are such great quantities of
these vegetable remedies sold and used as in
New England.
This is the manner in which Boston procures
most of the ingredients for the root beer she
consumes by the thousands of gallons. For
instance, the roots OF the shrub called spike
nard, are grubbed for by the North Carolina
red men and shipped hither in bales. This
plant is rePuted 20 be an excellent diuretic.
From the same region comes the supply of sar-
saparilla, famous for its virtues as an altera-
tive, and likewise another shrub of similar
properties named wintergreen, though much
of this is collected by contractors all over New
England. The checkerberry comes manly
from New Hampshire, and is put in for flavor
ing. And such villainous flavor YOU have
probably never tasted. Roots of the dandelion
said to be good for torpidity of the hver-7au
come from Lebanon. where the plant
with the golden flower is regularly
cultivated for medicinal purposes like
NJ 70 lgrata ALI a hyf hsf GhaEa ~
berries of the juniper tree are brought from
North Carolina IN bags, though many are I'M
ported from Germany too. This is another diu-
retlc. Hops are put in for their stimulating eff
feet. and little ginger for the stomach's sake
from Jamaica. All these and more TOO are iu-
dlciOusly mixed together, after the manner of
shotgun prescription" that is sure to hit
some complaint or other. whatever the sickness
may be, and packed in boxes for sale. These
packages are sent all over the south and west
nowadays, with accompanying directions as to
the proper method of brewing the root beer
and thus a passion for this fayorite Boston
drink Is being generally disseminated through
out the land.
PREJUDICE AGAINST ALCOHOL
New England has always been a great con-
sumner Of so-called temperance beverages"
prejudice against alcohol, by no means un-
reasonable in itself, has been entertained from
the beginning. and with such intensity that it
has come to be the custom for those who con-
sumo stimulants 10 use them on the sly For
this reason il is that all the particularly swell
Boston bar-rooms are hidden in blind ALLEYS,
because it Is not considered respectable here to
be seen going into q saloon. IN the rural dis
tricts person would be considered positively
disreputable who was known TO take a drop &C.
caslOnally. though in the most moderate way
and this of necessity gives rise TO no end Of hy-
pocrlsy. To great extent is this vice devel-
oped In the shape of so-called .'bitters," of
which millions of bottles yearly, quarts and
plnts. are sold in Massachusetts alone Though
nominsly medicines these bitters are in real
ity alcoholic. many of them containing nearly
as large a percentage of proof spirits as pure
whisky. They are consumed, of course in the
guise Of remedies for all known complaints
and dehrium tremens induced by their con-
sumption is quite proper sort of fits, socially
considered.
From the prejudice above referred 20 have
sprung into existence the temperance bars {"
OF which there are quite a number IN this CITY,
Some of these establishments do an enormous
business, in the sale OF root beer. soda water
beef tea. patent ''tOnics," mineral waters and
more particularly nerve foods" Among the
last named are bromide of choral strychnine
in solution, bromo-caffeine, and many other
powerful drugs which should never be used
without physicians prescription. The habit
Of taking any one or more Of them is acquired
with gratifying facility, and if pursued, is