The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-07-30
CHARACTER OF
 BUTTERMILk
 IS DISCOVERED

All together, now, ye prohibition ists, for the drive against butter1nilk, the corrupter of youth and the com ing parent of delirium tremens. Its real character Is being discovered, or rather discovered, anew, for 1t Is a very ancient beverage, although those who once knew what 1t was have passed into history. No man can be a real modern, lattnr half of 1919 booze unless he grapples with butter milk in a h2nd-to-hand contest. It has a kick and an alcoholic punch and the country will never be bone dry while buttermi1k still waves-that is unless Asia Minor was bone dry fin 1897 B. C., when Abraham used b'milk on the plains of Mamre. This was about A,00O years ago and there is no one living to tell the story, but the evidence of the Bible is quoted by a writer. who pronounces the follow ing eulogy on buttermilk:-
 We read in the eighteenth chapter of Genasis:---
 And he took butter and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set 1t before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat"
 The occasion was the coming of the Lord, to tell Abraham th7t his wife Sarah, then about 100 years old. would bear q son. The words butter and milk" mean simply buttermilk. which then, as now, was the most popular of all beverages in that part of the world. And it was looked upon as an alcoholic beverage.
 And even today buttermilk contain Ing a percentase of alcohol is the com monest beverage in the East. Abra- ham called 1t leben,, Gengis Khan called 1t lSoumiss but by any and all names 1t is he same, fer1nented bev- craze containing from 1 to 1-2 per cent. of alcohol, according to the method of making.
 In sorne parts of tho country a very high proof butterInilk is made by putting yeast and sugar in sweet milk, and this Is used as a beverage like beer.
 And now 4.00O years after the first recorded use of buttermilk as bev- craze, we find members of the cabinet in the enforcement of pro hibition, Ignoring 1t altogether. Sec retary Houston sends out a bulletin | recommending July 1, 1919, as But | termilk Day, and Attorney General | Palmer on the same day gives out a | formal opinion that the makers and | users of fermente beverages are guilty under the law.
 Milk was ono of the three beverages that the Israelites were forbidden to | leave uncovere over night. The req son was that q serpent might leave , his venom therein. This explanation 1 served to warn the simple Israelites against alcoholic buttermilk.
 In nearly every instance where the | word butter" occurs in the Old Tas- lament 1t means buttermilk, accord Ing to Eittos Bible Encyclopedia.
 "It was this curdled milk, highly esteemed as q refreshment fin the East" says Kitto. that Abraham set before the angles Genesis XVII) and | which Jael gave to Sisera instead of he water which he asked (Judges, V. ,5.)
 "In this state milk acquired slightly inebriating power if kept long enough"
 Gave Milk, Not Water.
 The story of Jael and Sisera Is one of the best known of the Bible stories. Sisera was the captain of 0 host op- posing the IsraeIites, but his tribe | was at peace with the Eenites. Jael was the wife of Heber the Kenite. sisera was very tired after a days and he made his way to Taers tent and asked her to hide him.
 ''Howbeit sesira fled away on his -eBI u lIlG tent c1 JdSL Llle Wlle OI 1eber the Kenite.
 And Jael went out to meet Sisera- md said unto him. Turn in. my lord. urn in to me; fear not. And when he lad turned in unto her in the tent, ,he covered him with a mantle.
 And he said unto her: Give me, pray thee, a little water to drink, and covered him.
 Now, this bottle contained butter nilg and not sweet milk It was not a glass bottle with a cardboard disk n it's mouth, like those the millSman caves at our doors before breakfast: { was a leather bottle. MIX was put n and allowed to ferment, aided by -ennet or some other fermenting lgent. When empty the bottle was not washed out, but a little of the milk was left sticking to the inside to act IS a leaven for new milk.
 This is made clearer by Deborah's song extolling Jaels deed:-
 He asked water. and she gave him milk; she brought forth butter on a ordIy dish"
 The butter was curdled milk, for the people of those days knew nothing 1f modern butter.