The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-01-12
DECLINE OF RUM As A DRINK.
a Hundred Years Ago the Drink OF
Continents ana Now Hardly Used.

Hundred Years Ago the Drink of
Continents ana Now Hardly Used.
From the New York Evening Post.
1t would be hard to find more strik-
ing example of the changes of fashion
in regard to drinks than the gradual
disappearance of rum from the list
of supplies necessary to the household
This particular form of strong drink
at one time, and not many years ago
at that, so universally known and so
commonly used that it became a syno-
nym for all kinds of hard liquors, is
now scarcely ever heard of, except for
cooking purposes, a few. hot drinks,
and as the traditional foundation of
punches. According to the testimony
of the dealers in the finer grades OF
wines and liquors there is no demand
whatever for rum of really good quail
ity for use in private houses. There Is
practically none. of this liquor stored
in the wine cellars of New York, and
only at rare intervals does rum of any
great age or fine quality appear on
the lists at auction sales.
The Oldest authentic rum that has
come to public notice recently is prob
ably some Santa Cruz that changed
hands at a sale here few years ago,
and which dated back fully a century,
hut lots of that kind ar rare. The old
est Medford rum is probably some that
was sold in 1896 in this city which dated
from 1875. and was bottled in 1888, and
another lot of that same year which
was still in the caSk. Rum, of course,
like other liquors, improves with age,
and becomes darker and much thicker.
In fact old rum which is very strong
is almost like a liqueur, and most deli
cious in taste.
Besides the Jamaica and Santa Cruz
rum there is also what is called Old
London Dock Rum so named from the
fact that originally the liquor was
shipped to London. and stored for years
in the dock vaults to age it. The name
finally became title to distinguish
a. certain grade, and quality of rum
which is still on the market. Our own
New England rum, famous in colonial
times, and untold the period of the Civil
War. was generally rather poor grade
of l3cuor.
Rum is distilled from molasses, the
skimmings of the boiling house on
sugar plantations, and the refuse juice
of cane sugar manufacture. In times
past these products were shipped from
| the West Indies to New England, and
enormous quantities of the fiery liquor
manufactured there. AS early as 1870
this business was under way in New
England. and in such quantities that
in 1886 ii is said that rum, rhum, rum
bullion rumbooze, or kill-devil was so
cheap there that a man could get in
toXcated on it at a cost of only a
penny or two. New England rum in
1719 was worth about three shillings
a gallon, two pence less than the price
of the West India brand. When the
slave trade began and cargoes of rum
were sent to Africa to be exchanged
for slaves, this American product was
so cheap that it soon put an end to the
trade in French brandy, which was
at first the great medium of exchange
in that business
In 1914 there we're 50,00OO0O gallons
of rum manufactured in the United
States when the population of the
country was about 100000 people. At
that time rum was as common q drink
as beer or whisky in these days. and
it continued to hold its own fairly well
until the period of the Civil War. Since
then other drinks have supplanted it,
and during recent years the importa-
tions of rum have shown a steady fall
ing off. doubly significant in view of
the rapid increase in population. In 1897
the importation was 39,37S gallons and