The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-07-25
INTOXICATING WATER.
Supply From the Dismal Swamp Is as
Good as Gin.
New York Press.)

New York PresS.)
Chicago is the great American center
of amazing discoveries. Something new
springs forth every week from Rookie
fellers fertile minds in the U. of c.,
gets in sort of mosquito punch on our
mental plexus. exists for day and is
forgotten. DIR. Lewis D. Mason of
Brooklyn discovered himself the other
day in the city of big winds, after re-
manning almost an unknown in his
home town. His statement that water
is an intoxicant does not relate to a
discovery in any sense of the word. We
knew it, to a certain extent, long be-
fore DR. Mason was born.
We do not usually expect to find po-
table water in a swamp. The very
word swamp is suggestive of toads.
snakes, alligators, insects. slime and
malaria We were brought up from
earliest childhood in the belief that
Dismal Swamp was the awful abode of
the most yenomous reptiles, whang-
dOodleS hOOdOos, etc. The Old-time
sailors knew better, and kept to them
selves the. secret that the waters were
the sweetest and most potable on earth.
If clipper ship could slip into Norfolk
before a long cruise and take on board
an ample supply of Dismal Swap water,
the crew were satisfied that they would
lasted Not a barrel was ever known
to spoil in a sail of 10000 miles.
The properties of the Dismal Swamp
water were not carefully analysed in
those early days of the nineteenth CEN
fury, and they long remained mys-
terry. About 1905 a planter explained
that the swamp was filled with juniper
trees. the berries of which fell into the
water and aromatized it. The juice of
the juniper berries is stomach tonic,
a diuretic and an aphrodisaic. Out OF
II gin is made. or at least favored.
Gin comes down to us from the old
English ward "gynpre." 1t is known
the world over as the favorite drink OF
the sailor Grog is made of it, The
Dismal Swamp water, therefore, was
Intoxicating, and the jack tarS drink 1t
by the barrel for it's jumpers sake.
The Dismal Swamp water has great
ly deteriorated since the attempted
drainage of the territory covered The
finest water now in the world. l be-
lieve. is to be found in the woods of
central Maine. in that wonderful re-
gion of rough tumble between
I.ily bay and Lake PamedemcoOk. /
know nothing of its analysis. But you
never want to stop drinking it. You
come across it in small pools every
where. and may drink 1t belly-buster
or out of a cup until your mouth leaks,
then in ten minutes you thirst for
more. 1t never swells you up. 1t seems
to disappear in haste through the
pores. 1t is sweet and cool, and is al
most as light as air. A moos guide
will drink five gallons a day and re-
joice.
This Maine water is so buoyant that
after drinking it you feel like flying. II
is then no trouble at all to hop, skip
and Jump over almost incredible forest
and mountain obstacles In pursuit or a
deer or moose. What gives this water
such a lift? Can Ii be the infusion OF
birch? The sap of this white birch,
you know, Is used in Germany and
Scandinavia for making a fermented
LIQUOR called birch wine. In America
we convert 1t into birch beer, which
even children drink without harm.
Physicians pronounce this birch beer a
good summer beverage, possessing dIu-
restic and antiscorbutic properties. The
Indians chewed the bark Of the birch
and built canoes OF 1t. Russia leather
is tanned with it, hence it's peculiar
odor. The leaves. as well as the sap
and oil, are used in the treatment OF
many chronic diseases.
We write and think of everything but
water. We never appreciate what wa
ter is until it's scarcity or pollution
dawns upon US. 1t Is not only the
safest and best drink, but. however II
may be disguised. Is perhaps the only
| fluid which can answer all the purposes