Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1918-11-23
BEAUTIFUL PLANT HAS
A DEGENERATE JUICE
(From the Boston Post

The Towering glory of a century
plant is one of natures most amazing
miracles. 1t is so graceful and so
beautiful that it seems almost incredi-
BILE that such a plant could be partially
responsible for nations degenera-
ton. But it is from the familiar CEN
tury plant that the Mexicans make the
liquor pulque, the beverage that is be-
loved by the majority of Mexican
poems.
1t is curious that two plants Of the
same family should be the greatest
blessing and the greatest curse of a
people. A near relative of the century
plant, which the Mexicans call the ma
guey. is the species from which sisal
hemp is obtained, from which nearly
al Of the Irvine and rope used in the
United States is manufactured.
The maguey is grown far and wide
on the plateaus of Mexico, but it pros
pers best in the fertile region east of
the capital and north of the city of
Puebla. Here for miles and miles the
tourist sees maguey plants by thous-
ands. The plant is an attractive one
and the fields present a pleasant APP
pearance. If the maguey was allowed
to flower, a plantation would be one
of the most gorgeous spectacles in the
world But the flowers would absorb
all of the juice that is made into the
pulque, so they are never seen.
/ The natives seem to have an instinc-
tive knowledge of the approaching mo-
ment when the plant will shoot up the
central shalk which bears the white
| flowers. Each plant that is ready to
! blossom is marked, and laborers cut
them at the base and extract all the
central portion. The rind is left, which
/ forms a natural basin, into which the
| colorless, sweet sap flows. 1t pours in
so fast that six quarts or even more
a day are taken from a single plant.
The sap is gathered by laborers. who
pour it into watts. where it ferments
quickly because of the addition of a
small amount of sour liquor, called
mother of the puque." Within a few
hours 1T is ready for market, and train
after train loaded with the liquor is
hurried to the big cities.
Visitors have to go through a long
apprenticeship to be able to drink
pulque. When it is more than twenty
four hours old it is horrible to the
taste, and it is anything but agreeable
when it is a day old. 1t is not very
Intoxicating, but the natives stupefy
themselves with enormous quantities.
Only Jne poor IN MEXICO drink pull
que, but when the Spaniards landed it
was popular with all classes. Legend
credits a mouse with revealing the
drink to man. In the eleventh century,
the tradition states, a mouse gnawed
into a maguey plant and the escaping
juice tempted the experimental desire
OF passerby. 1t was not unlike a
mixture of water and honey, and the
/ ulScOVerer was so pleased with the
beverage that he tapped some other
plants and sent his daughter with q
jar of it to the Toltec emperor. II
pleased the sovereign even more than
il had his subject, and he showed his
gratefulness by marrying the girl who
brought it. 1t was later on that the
MeNicans discovered its intoxicatine
tqualities. Before it is fermented the
81 JUICE of the maguey is as harmless as
gMpe juice, and many people have
pronounced it as pleasant to drink