St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-02-17
DISCOVERY OF WHISKY.
1t Was First Made in Ireland by
an English Monk.
New York Star.


| New York Star.
Some quaint characters can be found
| in the odd places of this great eosmo-
| politan city now and then. | met one
| of them driving street car on the
Eighth avenue line last night. He is a
Welshman named Evan Jones little
| iron-gray old man. with keen black eyes
and highly roseate nose. He was a
| school-teacher in his own country, a
| revenue officer in Ireland, an account
| ant in Bombay in an English shipping
] house, and now drives his car with the
| prOfane and cynical cheerfulneSS which
| characteriZes old drivers, old printers,
and old night watchmen.
| Il learned q new thing about whisky
! last night" he said to me yesterday as l
stepped on the front platform of his
! car.
what was it?'' l asked.
''Why. how it was made first" he re-
piled. as he pulled his old waterproof
coat through the guardrail in front and
| bit off piece of plug. alt was a monk
| who first invented it. He lived all alone
in little hole in the rocks. For years
| he had lived there. He was a man of
| great piety and learning. He could
read the stars and foretell eclipSes aud
storms and hard winters. He knew
every herb and flower in the fields and
could concoct some powerful cordials
and medicines. He could set broken
bones and cure diseases and he was as
| kind-hearted as child, and
never harmed as much as
field mouse. All the same, the
people would have nothing to do
with him. They avoided him, except
| now and then, when sUme mischevious
lad would roll rock down the mountain
! side against his hut or else stone his
old shaggy dog. No one ever said
! kind word to him. and he might have
| died and no one would have been near
| him. Then he invented whisky. First
| the people smelled it, and they used to
| hang around to see what it was, and one
| day the monk founda poor fellow sick
/ and cold and gave him a drink, and
then little flask to carry away. In
| week the monk had more friends than
| an alderman with a pull. The people
| almost took his arm off shaking hands.
They built him fine little stone house,
| and he could have founded monastery
| and grown rich, but he wouldn't, but
kept on making whisky until he died.
"Where did l learn that?" said the
! old man, after he had paused minute
to say something sarcastic about a
the wrong side of the crossing. ''Why.
| there was two old ducks got on the car
| late last night, and both were pretty
| full. One was an EngliShman and the
! other an lriShman, and 1t was the Eng
| lishman who told the story about the
monk, and he wound up with: And
this happened in Ireland, an the monk
was an EDgiishman. an the only time
an IriShman is ever friend to an Eng
lishman is when the Englishman has
the bottle
"'Ah,' said the Irishman, 'be off wild
ye. The first time IriShmen ever saw
whisky was at the battle of Ballyma-
cleugh. where the SaXons put up
bad job on 'em. 1t was but short
time after the days of st. Patrick, and
5000 lrishmen came down upon the En-
glish and would have ate 'em but for
their Tricks. The English filled the
trenches with buckets OF whisky and
the Irishmen drank it an got to fighting
among themselves, and that Is the way
the EngliShmen first bate US and
brought trouble on Ireland
Yes said the Englishman, YOU
give an Irishman drink an he'll fight
his own father
"'An' if an Englishman offers man
drink look out for him, for he wants TO
do i'm, moind that said the lrishman.
AN that's the way they kept it I'D
all the way down from Fifty-eightn
street to Abingdon square," said the
driver. "They were both goOd-na-
tured, and when they got off it was to
take adrink and wait for the next car"