Year: 1864

The Drinking Habits OF the People


Bavaria.


From the Atlantic Monthly for Augu st.


The class of men engaged in business,
and pursuing it somewhat actively. give
less attention to beer during the dav.
They take couple of glasses-fOur of our
common tumblers-at dinner;s sr-1 s.arbaDs
send out during the day to replenish
pitcher for the counter-not, however, to
treat customers, as used to be done in our
country; but as beer had been all day
secondary to business, the latter is drop
ped for the evening, and the undivided at
tention bestowed upon the national bever-
age. A large portion Of the poor, and
many who cannot be called poor, have not
the means for this indulgence; and yet
men and women are seldom seen at their
work without a mug of beer standing near
them. Ladies have the same provision in
their families, as also students, and all
who occupy rented rooms in connection
with the families of the city. From ten
to one o'clock servant-girls, with pitchers
in their hands, and immense bundles of
keys hanging to their apron strings, are
seen running to and from the neighboring
beer-houses, thick as butterflies floating in
a Summer sun, and seem far more as il on
business requiring haste.


No room Is sought for renting without
an inquiry as to the quality of the beer Of
the neighborhood and the landlady feels
that her chance for a tenant are exceed
ingly slim if she cannot furnish satisfac-
tory Recommendation in this respect
Scarcely house in the city is thirty steps
from where the article can be had The
places fitted up with seats and tables for
drinking accommodate from twenty to FIVE
hundred persons, and even one thousand
or more in Summer, when garden is gen
orally prepared with seats for the purpose
At these large places, music is often pro
ina the c5d@e4ai leaiHs se s5e frequently found lend
ence, and sometimes good deal more, 20
the other sex, in this self-denying work, in
which the men have been the great bur
den-bearers. But the greatest crowds of
real beer-drinkers 90 to another class of
houses-that is, the breweries themselves,
where rooms are always fitted up for drink
ing.


Of these the Court Brewery is perhaps
in highest repute, and is at least great
curiosity. visited it three or four Tunes
during a six years residence in the city,
and always in company with others who
wished to SEQ the Lions of the place and
for the same reasons that would have ia
ken US to see menagerie. Why did the
monks never think of applying to such
places the figures by which they protested
against the fumes of coffee, "the fumes of
hell?n The smoke of five hundred cigars
or pipes rising to the ceiling, which had
been thus smoked for centuries-the hOarse
hum of five hundred voices uttering the
German gutturals from tongues thickened
by the use of beer, and floating heavily
through an air of densest smoke dimming
the lights and turning all into an indefinite
and uniform brown colOrcthis may be
indeed picture Of Elysium to some minds
but to ours it is not. never found va
cent seat there nor felt a desire to occupy
one, had there been such. Stone mugs of
double the size OfcOmmOn glasses are used,
perhaps to save servants labor IN drawing,
which is no small matter, as barrel OF
beer lasts not more than ten minutes at the
height of the drinking time Of the evening.


None Of the drinking places in the city
are filed until evening. In the afternoon
many take their walks into the suburbs,
and turn aside where a glass may be had.
On all holidays the whole city is adrift,
much of it in the surrounding country,
and most of this drift lodges against the
suburban beer houses. In summer even
ings there are frequent entertainments,
some provided by the government-as one
every Saturday evening, from six to seven
o'clock. from MAY to November, mile
from the city in the English Garden,
where sometimes two thousand persons
may be in attendance to hear the royal
bands play. 1t is presumed that there
will always be a considerable number
among these who will not be able to stand
it an hour without beer, and bene6eent
provision is made for such-seats aud
tables for at least five hundred persons be-
ing there provided, and often filled, 50
that some must drink standing.


The most common manifestation OF
Bavarian beer-drinking Is perpetual
tasting, and not pouring down Of the
liquid q glass at time. These people
seem to have the art of doing this thing SO
gradually and quietly that the soothing
liquor passes gently into the circulation,
and produces an effect very different from
that which would result from swallowing
it glass at draughty enabling them to
drink without visible effect a much larger
quantity in the aggregate. They practice
upon the proverb, "The still SOW drinks
the swill," proverb which would serve
admirably the purpose Of those who de-
sire to join in the general sarcasm expend-
ed upon Bavarian beer-drinking, since al
most every word in it seems to express SO
exactly some Characteristic which North
Germans and others are disposed to attri-
butte to BaYarians.