Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1920-07-08
PURITAN CHEER
n Bill Of Fare Mt an Ancient Ordina-
tion~-OIdtime Customs
(From The New York Times)


(From The New York Times)
Passage by the Massachusetts Senate
Of a bill to permit the sale Of beers and
light wines with an alcoholic content OF
not more than 2.75 per cent. reminds an
accomplished Massachusetts antiquarian
and philosopher to send us the bill OF
fare for the ordination of a pastor OF
the Boston Old North Church. the church
of Increase and Cotton Mather, tn 1722:
ITO be sent to Mr.. Townsend's for
ministers entertained there), one plum
qeke, one Cheser cheese, one-half barrel
beer, two bread bricks, one-half dozen
Canary wine, two pounds fresh butter,
one-half barrel ale.
From the cook shops: three small
pattyes, IL dozen tarts.
ITO boil: five hams bacon, five leggs
porke, Is neat tongues, two dozen fowles.
To rost: five pieces beefe, five loins OF
veal, five quarters lamb.
All sorts Of sauce. as anchovies, pick
les. green, sallets, sparrow grass. oys-
ters, onions, cramberrys.
Forty pounds butter, eggs, one-fourth
hund. reasons. one-fourth do. corants,
spice of all kinds. 16 pudings.
"Lickquer: one bl. Deere, one bL. cyder.
one-fourth cask Madeira wine, one
fourth hundred powder sugar, one loaf
Z refine 0O., one RdllOOn vinegar. ohc-idi
galloon lin juice. Forty bread bricks.
pips and tobacco, one dozen drinking
glasses"
In that time of rude plenty. low prices
and able appetites, such were the ban
quets Of clergymen, men Of learning ana
piety, Of strong heads in every sense.
One wonders a little that there were
only a dozen drinking glasses. How
many guests we're there to partake or
that huge quantity Of drinks? How Tar
away and incredible now that pastoral
wealth OF "lickquer' looks! What a
contrast between that universal custom
airy moisture and the present modest
desire of the Massachusetts Senate for
the mildest beer and wine. Eager re-
formers are too apt to forget what gi-
gantic advances temperance has made.
In the late Alice Morse Earle's The
Sabbath in Puritan New England" Is
printed the tavern keepers bill, all
Paid exsept the Ministers Rum" for
keeping the ministers at a Hartford
ordination in 1874. Twenty-four dinners
and three breakfasts are charged. the
rest of the bill is Falstaf1an. Among
the entries are two mugs tody, one pint
wine, three bitters, Is boles punch. II
bottles wine. five mugs flip. three boles
Punch. three boles tody.". II our wise
and pious ancestors among the clergy
were equal to this-and no doubt every
one at this Hartford f~estivity carried his
''lickauer'' unblenchingly and without
a. ouiver-of what must the laity have
been capable?
ordination beer was we'll known.
The ordination supper was a great treat
Indeed at every popular meeting from
a corn-husking or apple-bee to a fu-
neral says Mrs. Earle, "a liberal
-.a,. 80 ,ilor prpch and grO1 was
supplied, which latter compound bever-
ages we're often mixed on the meeting
house green or even in punch bowls on
the very door-steps of the church AT
the raising" of a meeting house In Med
ford five barrels of rum" were furnished
for the workmen and lookers-on. 1t IS
not difficult to believe that "two-thirds
of the frame fell and many were in
jured." At Pittsfeld in 1871 every work
man ito raise the meeting mouse got
a shilling a day for rum and sugar. In
Northampton in 173s ten gallons OF rum
were furnished for the same purpose.
The village. doctor got three pounds for
setting his bone Jonathan strong. and
s3 los for setting Ebenezer Burt's tiny.
a SUFFICIENT commentary on the enectiVe'
ness Of the rum.
What seems impossible to our age, bars
, were actually set up at the churcn oooi'
= and free rum and other heady lick
!, ouers' given to everybody. Even in 49,
when DR.. Leonard Bacon. a great char"
acter and intellect, was instalieo as pas
tor of the First Congregational Church
of New Haven, free drinks were fur"
nished at an adjacent bar to all VINO
chose to order them" But enough on
Illustrations Of habits and customs al
most unintelligible to the moderns. Noe
with anv intention of disrespect to men
and generations that played aole ana
: fruitful parts in American life and MS
tory are these curious details given here'
but to show what vast improvements IN
drinking habits have been attained. In
many respects, doubtless, We are infer.
ior TO our predecessors. but at least our
rotations and computations, permitted or
UNIDENTIFIED. compared with theirs ara
as water unto wine.