Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1922-03-08
Government Tackles Big Task in
Dc2riving Poorer Glasses of
Their Beverage.
TRIED MANY TIMES BEFORE
%conquistadores Found the Aztecs
Drinking Pulque, and 1t Has Been
Favcrite Triple of People
Ever Since.

GO In AhttS
pulque drinking, as dispatches say, II
has assumed Il task beside which the
enforcement of u own eighteenth
amendment would seem q minor de-
tail of administration" according TO
a bulletin TO the Washington %. ~
Headquarters of the National Geo
graphic society.
"Edicts against pulque are nothing
new in the MeXican'S life. AS early
as 1892, at least, a Spanish viceroy
thought it would be a good thing to
stop pulque drinking, and precipitated
q riot which ended in. the burning OF
public buildings, and as recently as
1917 an anti-pulque section was In
corporated in the new Mexican constl-
tuition. But the Mexican has bliss
fully ignored such prohibitions, as did
the Aztec before him, and as did the
Toltsc before the Aztec.
"prunk only by the poorer classes
pulque cam lay one claim, that OF age,
TO be an aristocrat of new world Dev-
erages. The conquistadores found the
Aztecs drinking pulGue, and the AZ
tees told the legendary tale of how a
certain Toltec saw a mouse gnaWlng
at the heart of a growing maguey.
Peering closer he discovered a t1uid
oozing forth. The obseryaEt Toltec
sent his daughter to convey a sample
of the fluid to his king. The monarch
liked both the beverage and the girl.
To them was born a child named Me-
coretzin, meaning Child of the Ma
guey.' From that time forth, so runs
the story, the Toltecs began to decline
in power and. their vitality Slapped by
the wine of the maguey, they fell easy
prey to the Aztec conQuerors in the
Valley Of Anahuac.
"Pulque has long entered into Mex
lean history, and is closely related to
social and labor conditions there, be
cause the geography of certain dis
tricts of the states Of Hidalgo, Tlax-
Gala, Mexico, and Of the federal dis
trict itself, is extremely favorable to
growing certain varieties Of cactus.
There are 33 kinds Of cactus which
thrive in the Mexican plateau, all of
which. are grouped under the generic
name of 'maguey.' The Greek 'Agave'
(noble) also is applied to this group,
q Characterization which is defensible
even if the maguey is comparable to
q Gargantuan artichoke.
Shipped by TrainIoad.
1.-THE visitor to Apam, a town of
southern Hidalgo, might mistake the
long lines of cars constantly moving
AWAY from the sidings as milk trains.
Instead, they are pulque cargoes, many
of them bound for Mexico City, where
the gluey, whitish fluid will find its
way inro the exaggerated '%schooners,'
set out on the long counters Of the
%pulquerias.
1.-The most picturesque thing about
pulque is the method of Its gathering.
If undisturbed a maguey plant would
6evelou Il stalk from three.to five times
as tall as a man, and thousands
of yellow flowers would bloom on
this stalk. When the flowers are
about 10 sprout this stalk is cut off,
the heart of the plant is followed out,
and into the receptacle thus formed
flows the sap of the plant. This sap
the natives call aguamiel, honey
water.
"Along the harvester, recog-
nizes a plant which is ready for him
by the fact that the heart has been
stuck on n of the sharp spines of
the cactus. and proceeds to empty the
'honey-water' into a pig-skin bag.
A Difference in Viewpoint.
Remuneration of pulque is has
tened by the Introduction ireo the
fresh liquid of 'mother-pulque' which
has been kept for ten days or two
weeks Ones attitude toward the fin
ished product is akin to that toward
the ~oliye-only much more sc. The
disinterested %partaker's reaction is al
most invariably the same-that pulque
tastes like sour milk and smells like
fetid eggs.
This beverage is drunk SO gener-
ously by the lower classes, least able
to restrain their appetites, that it has
become in economic problem of great
magnitude in Mexico because CT the
immediate enforced idleness it causes,
and because of the degeneracy that re-
suits from its longtime use.
"Pulque is not to be confused with
mescal and tequila, both distilled
liquors derived from the maguey, or
with aguardiente. Il brandy. distilled
either from sugar-cane or from grapes.
"In lesser attitudes than that of the
Mexican plateau the maguey natures
very slowly, a fact which led to giving
the nickname century plant To the
variety found in the Southwest Of the
United States. The abolition of pulQue
would not affect the high esteem in
which the maguey plant is held in
Mexico. Not only is its beverage very
ancient. but it's Uses ALWAYS have been