The Washington herald., 1914-12-20


best wine that should be made there
Rensselaer, at Albany wine was pro-
posed, as il was by the Swedish pio-
necrs on the Delaware. 1t was at
tempted by French settlers in Rhode
Island and Carolina; the latter prov
ince was expected to supply the
whole demand of the West Indies.
William Penn only hesitated whether
10 import foreign wines or to 'hnc'
the American ones, and ended by try
ing both plans, establishing vine
yard with 1000 French vines near
Philadelphia. Ii is unnecessary to
trace further this chronicle of failure
in wine growing. To the end of the
colonial epoch these efforts were re-
newed, vino dressers were sent over
and rewards were offered, but no con-
siderable quantity was ever made. 1t
was cheaper at that day to import
from Madeira and Portugal than to
divert labor from the profitable
American staples to grow wine, and
the law of relative cheapness is as
hard to escape as that of gravitation."
Did Not Drink Water.
Yet the early attempts at Rticul-
ture and brandy diStillation left their
geographical mark in Eastern Penn
sylvania, where, even though grape
culture failed, there is still the stream
called the Brandywine, on whose
banks ono OF the battles of the Rcyo-
luton was fought.
DR.. EggleSton says that water was
never used as beverage by the colo
niStS, not even by the women and
l.. III Z
light decoctions for the children, but
did not have them drink water, un-
less Swcctencd with molaSScS. The
men drank whiskey, rum and ale,
and a woman was not considered a
good housewife if she neglected to
brew the family ale and beer. There
was a still on every plantation and
whiskey and rum were a part of the.
daily rations. They could not have
christening, 4 funeral, or the induc-
ton of a preacher into his sacred Of
fice without these beverages, and the
preachers were as much given to their
use as any of the parishioncrs. The
man who condemned the use of
liquors in those days would have been
worse treated than were the Ouakers
for their peculiar religious belief,
and they were banished from most of
the colonies.
But the Quakcrs were not opposed
to strong drink They, too, used
whiskey and drew the line on tea.
The leading Quaker of Philadelphia
made a public demonstration of his
opposition to tea when it was intro
duced by taking his wife's tea china
to the public square and breaking it.
The people who gathered about him
begged him to save the china, which
was imported and artistic. They SYM
pathizcd with his condemnation of tea
as the product of the heatheR Chi
neSe, but they wanted to save the
English china The old Quaker was
inexorable and smashed the cups and
saucers as the implements of the
heathen decoction. Preachers and
doctors inveighed against the new
drink, and found in it the cause OF
many ills, especially of the stomach
and nerves Tea was responsible for
nervous, irritable and lazy women,
and the man who drank tea even at a
social function was considered too ef-
Terminate to mingle with his fellow
men.
Coffee Likewise Stunned.
NOllGC IOI
though not so violent, perhaps, be-
cause it came from English settle
ments in the Orient and did not have
Chinese. There are still physicians in
this modern and enlightened age who
profess to believe that both tea and
coffee are greater causes OF i'll health
through excessive use than any alco-
holic drink.
But in the hardy pioneer days,
when wading through the snow in the
forest, or sailing the sea in an open
boat in all kinds of weather were
not considered hardships, they all
drank liquor and refused to drink
water. Perhaps they would have
builded better had they all been tee
totalers, and perhaps not. They did
build we'll, even though they not in
frequently were drunk and did not
consider even drunkenness a sin, but
laughed at it, and contested as to
which could sit longest at table and
not get under it. The governor of
one of the colonies gave banquet to
an official delegation from another
colony, and his first act of hospitality
was to lock the door, put the key in
his pocket and announce that no man
would be allowed to leave the room
sober. So what the governor of
North Carolina said to the governor
of South Carolina is not Of recent
origin, however much it has been re-
pcated in later days. The Dutch of
New York had their beer and they
were as jealous of it as of their long
pipes and tobacco. Both were con-
sidered evidences of manhood and
badges of free citizenship.
Rum the Mainstay.
But there was nothing in the
Northern and Middle British colonies
wanted SO much as rum," says DR..
Eggleston- with rum they supplied
their fishing vessels and whale ships;
with rum they traded to Newfound-
land, and bought negroes on the Gui-
nea coast; with rum they traf6icked
for corn and illicit tobacco in the Vir-
ginia rivers, and for peltries and corn
in the North Carolina inlets; with
rum they cajoled the Indian out Of
his wampum and beaver skins, and
with rum they cheered the homely
festivities and solemnities of pioneer
life-weddings, house-raisings, husk-
ings, funerals, and the ordinations of
new ministers.
mo odium appears to have attach
p