The San Francisco call., 1896-03-03
ABsINTHE IN NEW YORK.

The Manufacture of That Peculiar
French Beverage as It Is Carried On.
Though the French colony IN New York
is not large, its influence is considerable.
Table d'hotes of every price, from so cents
up to 81, flourish, most of them within the
mile circle of Madison Square. Every
visitor to the metropolis thinks it obliga-
tory upon him to patronize at least one OF
these during his stay, and their fame is
widespread. But a more interesting indi
cation of French influence in New York is
in the growth in the consumption of alb
sinthe here and the establishment of an
absinthe mandatory in the very center of
the city. This place is two blocks off of
Broadway and close to Fourteenth street.
There is more than one firm OF New
York city absinthe manufacturers, though
only one that carries on the business on a
large scale. In cellars and rear easements
in both the old French quarter and the
new there are a dozen or more little
Frenchmen who prepare this vicious bev-
erage for their own trade In secret, and sell
it for the real Parlsian article of the high
est quality. The one large manufacturer
alluded to goes about his making of the
seductive beverage much more openly, as
indeed he has to, for his machinery is elab
crate and takes up good bit of space in
his back yard.
Nearly every day in the year he has this
machine working, and his product is about
a thousand gallons month. Twelve thou
sand gallons year is great quantity
when it is considered that q drink of alb
sinthe is simply a tablespoonful of the
extract, mixed with syrup and water until
there is tumblerful of milky liquid. The
American absinthe is never offered to
Frenchmen who visit the cafes or French
hotels in this city. They would detect the
difference quickly. But to a man who is
not an absinthe expert, that turned out
almost within the roar of Broadway is just
as good.
The machinery this New York manu-
facturer uses was imported from Paris sew
eral years ago. and it is an elaborate,
costly piece of French construction. His
process of making the liqueur is exactly
like that in vogue in France, save that he
has to diStil dried wormwood leaves in
stead of fresh ones. The wormwood he
| imports in barrels, and the process is COM
| pleted by the careful addition Jf certain
| favoring extracts.
| The manager of one French hotel of the
| city said the other day that he was selling
more absinthe now than at any time in the
| hotels history. Another thing worth
| nothing is that one of the best cafes in
| New York, place that is famed for its
French liqueurs, gets good deal of Amer
| can-made absinthe from this manufac-
| turer.
In the best cafes the absinthe served,
| whether French or American, is fairly
good. at least. But very different quail
| ity is to be found in the Bleecker-street
| region, where the French quarter was sew
| eral years ago; and where now the few
| Frenchmen left, almost invariably of the
| lower class, hobnob with negroes and Ital-
ians. In the drinking places in that dis
trict one gets tumblerrul of absinthe for
cents. It is rank poison, highly favored,
| almost as bad, if not quite so effective in
its results, as the dead house whiskey" OF
/ the river fronts. This decoction is made
on the premises, or close by, secretly and
| in small quantities, according to the de-
| mand.-New York Tribune.