The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-01-27
DRANK STRONG DRINK.


Puritans Loved Beer, Wine and stron ger
Liquors, and Sometimes Got TIpsy.
From the New York Sun.
New England was settled by a beer
drinking and ale-drinking race. Moth
ting, perhaps, more severely tried the
settlers of Plymouth and Massachu-
sets bay than the deprivation of malt
liquor. Bradford, the pilgrim gov
ernor. complained loudly of the priva-
ton, while Higginson. the Salem min
lister, deemed Ii a cause for boasting
that whereas my stomach could not
only digest such drink as was both
strong and stale, can and oftentimes
do drink New England water very
we'll" The author points out that, as
Higginson died presently, his praise of
the unwonted beverage does not carry
the force intended. Another early
chronicler. Roger Clap, notes with be-
wilderment that 1t was mot accounted
a strange thing In those days to drink
water" Wood, in his New England
Prospects" says of New England wa
ter: II dare not prefer 1t before good
beer, as some have done, but any man
would choose II before bad beer, whey
or buttermilk." The dearth of malt
liquors did not long continue, for the
colonists soon imported malt and learn
ed to make beer from Indian corn. In
1884 an ale quart of beer could be
bought for a penny. and a landlord
was liable to 10 shillings' fine If he
made greater charge or If his liquor
fell below a certain quality. So greatly
had the sale of ale and beer extended
In 1875 that Cotton Mather said every
other house in Boston was an alehouse,
and a century later Governor Pownail
hn
time Boston was regarded as a rela-
lively sober town
The colonial New Englanders did not
confine themselves by any means to ale
and beer. Other mild fermented drinks,
like mead and metheglin were con-
sumed in large quantities. In Judge
SewalPs diary are found references
also to cider claret, sack, canary,
punch. sack posset and black cherry
brandy. Sack, however, was passing
out OF use in SewalPs time. In 1916
winthrop records that four ships had
come into port with 500 butts of sack
on board. Canary wine was imported
in large quantities. The Winthrops in
their letters made frequent mention of
canary Claret was not much liked by
the colonists, who preferred the sweet
taste or sack. Aqua-vitae, a general
name for strong waters, was brought
over In large quantities during the nth
century and sold for about shillings
a gallon. When, by 1870, moiasses had
come to be imported in considerable
amounts, the forests OF New England
supplied the fuel requisite for convey
ing 1t into the liquor called by John
Eliot ''rumb," and by Josselyn that
cussed hquor rhum, rumbullion or kill
devil" 1t went by the latter name and
rumbooze everywhere. and was soon
cheap enough. In 171s and for so years
a frsf@wN a~-sI
worth only shillings a gallon, and
West India rum brought but 2 pence
more. Not content with their own
manufactured rum, the thirsty colon
lists imported gin and aniseseed cor
dial from Holland and fiery wines from
Portugal. the Canaries and the Madei-
ras. OF these Madeira was the favor
lite of all fashionable folk, and often
each glass of wine would be strength
ened by a liberal dash of brandy. Ben
nett wrote in 1740 of Boston society,
Madeira wine and rum punch are
liquors they drink in common"
Every buffet of people of fashion sus-
tained a punch bowl, which was never
allowed to become empty and every
dinner was prefaced by a bowl of
punch, which was passed from hand to
hand. Flip is spoken of as early as
1890, and continued to be extremely
popular for a century and a half It
was made of home-brewed beer sweet
ened with sugar. or molasses, and fla
vored with a liberal dash of rum, then
stirred in a mug or pitcher, with a red
hot "loggerhead." which made the
liquor foam and gave 1t a burnt flavor.
A terrible drink is said to have been
popular in Salem; at least the name
was terrible. for II was called whistle
belly vengeance. 1t consisted of sour
household beer. simmered in a kettle.
sweetened with molasses filled with
brown bread crumbs, and was drunk
piping hot. "Stonewall'' was a most
popular intoxicating mixture of cider
and rum. "Calibogus," or bogus"
was cold rum and beer unsweetened.
BLACK strap" was a mixture of rum
and molasses. Casks of ii used to
stand in every country store. with a
sailed and dried Goldfish slyly hung
alongside and constituting a free lunch,
to be stripped off and eaten. and thus
to tempt, drought thirst, the purchase
of another draught of black stf-ap.