The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-03-16
CORDlACS MADE BY MONKS.
Chartreuse, Its Origin and the Secret of
Its Formula.

Its Formula.
OF all the old-time liqueurs or cor
| dials the best known to-day is that to
| which the disciples of St. Bruno, the
Carthusian monks or white friars, have
given their name and trademark of
| Chartreuse. Although there are So
CarthuSian 'monaStereS in existence
| this trademark is the exclusive prop
| erty of the mother house, or Grande
| Chartreuse, in Dauphiny, where the
cordial is made. This was originally a
| simple elixir, whose ingredients We're
prescribed by Bronault. a physician Of
the seventeenth century, who recon-
| mended it as a specific in certain af-
fections Of the heart, liver and stom-
ach.
Bronault's formula was original for
he was the first to use distilled spirits
as the medium for extracting the es-
sential oils of peppermint, cinnamon
and cloves, which still form some of the
ingredients of the world-renowned bev
erage. They are by no means the only
ingredients, for 40 kinds of plants and
herbs are used in compromising it, the
most important of which are balm mint
in the proportion of from $50 to 500
grammes to the hectoiter of about 22
gallons; from 1875 to $50 grammes each
of the flowers of hyssop, peppermint,
alpine NORWOOD and the shoots and
roots of angelica There are also added
in smaller proportions the flowers of
arnlCa, thyme, coStmary, the buds of
the balm poplar, cinnamon, mace cor
lander and cardamom seeds, aloes and
other aromatics. All the foregoing are
mingled with a preliminary alcoholic
infusion of sweet marjoram red and
yellow carnations, lavender, black,
white and red pepper cubebs, rosn,
therias, hyacinth root and balm Of mus
,pl
laga wine Although the total amount
of solid matter dissolved in hectoliter
of the cordial does not cost more than
eight francs, the many elements Of
which it is composed and the special
| manipulation necessary to blend them
| properly makes imitation for private
use impossible.
limited, but growing. when the French
revolution drove out the monks who
| made it and confiscated their monas-
| terry. After the downfall of the first
| empire, when the Carthusians We're al
| lowed to reoccupy their premises at an
| annual rental of franc. which they still
pay, young brother of the order. who
| had been put in possession of the secrets
of the compromising of their liquer by
| an aged member of the community, re-
| Vived the manufacture of the white
Chartreuse, the only kind which had up
| to that time been made, and later in
vented the yellow and green brands. He
| was Dom GARNER. and all the bottles of
| the Chartreuse cordials still bear his
name on their labels. To have charge of
such secular avocations as superintend-
ing the manufacture of the liqueur for
sale seemed to this pious monk almost
a proclamation Of his holy calling as a
member of monastic community
ripnrnl1S
nally, in his old age, his superiors per-
mitted him to retire to another house of
his own order and there end his days in
the strict practice of the rules of St
Bruno.
An eyewitness tells how one day when
visiting Carthusian monastery and
talking with its prior, a tall, erect old
man, whose white beard flowed down
over the white robe OF his order, ap-
preached and made the sign of asking
permission to speak. This being grant
ed he requested to be allowed to get a
pair of scissors to cut a painful, broken
finger nail. The prior answered curt
ly: 1T isn't worth while" and after
the old monk had left the room turned
to his visitor and said: You are
doubtless surprised at my apparent
harshness. but | know that my brother
in Christ who has just gone out is at
heart grateful to me for infiicting a
modification of the flesh upon him in
the presence of a third person." The
monk thus treated was none other than
Dom GARNER whose skillful manage
| ment of the manufacture of the cordial
has put enormous sums into the treas
ury of its Carthusian owners.
The Carthusians themselves gain
nothing thereby and keep none of the