The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1907-02-15

the United States from every corner OF
the wide world for the past half ceI
fury, has brought with it in the way
OF fiotsam and jetsam a host of strange
liquors, with weird names and subtle
effects. The prosaic figures of tn
customs reports Of the treasury ue-
partment tell the story Of the lncreas-
ing magnitude Of this traffic, which
has sprung up in the wake Of the ex-
odus Of races, TO solve and satisfy the
great American thirst problem.
The simple life for the barkeeper
is now only a memory. No longer, as
in the goods old days u~nperverted taste
can he establish a jab factory with q
barrel Of whiskey, a happy smile, and
a Q~uick-trigger finger for operating
capital; at least he cannot do it AND
cut his coupons with any degree of Ger
tainty and regularity. A complex civ
ilfZation is no longer content with
mountain dew straight, but its heter-
ogeneous thirst demands sake, mastica,
tirnOvka, arrack, aquavit, bauza, quass
chica, murra, teff, yaoust, in addition
TO an almost limitless list of new wines
and beers. The time has arrived when
the competent barkeeper must not only
be an expert analytical chemist, but
also an accomplished anthropGlogist.
MaStic, or maStica, is d gift to tn
American republic from the isles o
Greece. 1t is a drink with a proud
lineage that runs back to the TINS Of
Pericles, Aspasia, SOphOcles, and An
, axagoras. 1t il even the tradition that
it is the tippie that gave Xantippe G
tongue SO bitter that Socrates vel
coined the cup OF deadly hemlock Il
the only sol luton of the marriage prob
lem. Painstaking investigation Of the
| qualities of modern mastic throws a
food of light pom the vexed problem
of the battle of Marathon, in which d
handful Of Greeks swept the vast army
Of invading Persians into the sea and
saved Europe for Occidental civiliza-
ton. A homeopathic dose of masuc
has enough concentrated courage in It
to make q rabbit spit in a bulldogs
face. Historians are, therefore, lean
ing to the theory that the anou
charge Of the Athenians, which struck
the Persians like a bolt Of ravagins
fury, had its inspiration in soul-buz-
ing draughts OF the historical progeni-
Tor OF mast1c. According to modern
police records, one American full OF
mastic is a storm center of d~esolation,
an army loaded with the juice wouh
be a cyclone of disaster.
R~-A. 49, 81 %A~ YT~fk0l CSn%>
in the train Of the large immigration
from Greece, and the countries Of the
Eastern Mediterranean. It can be had
at nearly all the bars in the large cities
Of the East and middle West. It is
one Of the most fiery of the brandies
and Il made from the must of grapes
or currants after the juice has b2cn
expressed for wine. Care is taken 10
crush the seeds in this must, and, as
q consequences, the mastic has a pecu-
liar %astringent taste that needs con-
siderable practice to enjoy.
With the invasion Of the Japanese
particularly in the West, has come the
introduction of sake, a drink around
which clusters many religious myths
as to it's origin It is thick and sirupy
and is made from rice. 1t has so high
a percentage of alcohol that it is class
flied under the head Of spirits by the
customs house officials. There are a
number Of varieties of sake, and some
Of the have succeeded in capturing the
jaded taste of the bibulOusly inclin-
ed on the Pacific Coast,
PulQue, tequila, mescal, and other
thanksgiving intoxicants distilled from
the maguey plant, in Mexico, have a
certain vogue in the Southwest, but the
national drinks of Mexico have not be-
come popular this side of the Rio
Grande, AMI are not to be had east Of
the Santa Fe or Ell Paso. There are
thousands of acres in Texas, New Mex
leo, Arizona, and California that are at
present yielding no return that could
be utilized for maguey plants, and
doubtless the Southwest would be as
thickly studded with century plant
ranches and mescal distilleries as In
the sister republic of Mexico if the
American palate could be trained to
like tequila or mescal.
Many Immigrants from the Danube
valley. Bulgarians, ROumanians, Ser
VANS, Slavs, Bosnians, Russian Jews,
&c, have invaded the Northwest, n
as a result the customs authorities
have made the acquaintance of "tirn-
ovka," a prune brandy. The valley
of the Danube is probably the original
home of the prune and plum. Not
only do they grow wild, but what is
more, nowhere in Europe do they
reach such perfection, and despite the
competitiol of France and California,
Bosnia and Servia still furnish the
greater part of the worlds prune sup
ply. Prunes and pigs are the two chief |
sources of wealth of these Balkan
tonGius, Srr(dy' xfipakilslo ,losd enaeo1
c+ntoC For. offor tho manila hnrn cold