One malster said:

With one exception every barrel of beer brewed in New York was made with glucose instead of malt, and then doctored with bi-sulphate of lime instead of bi-carbonate of soda, to check butyric and lactic fermentation, and with salicylic acid, alcohol, and glycerine in order to sweeten it.

"Another malster, who was applied to, declined to tell what he knew, upon the ground that if all his customers knew of it they would leave him."

The brewers held a meeting and decided that "no answers should be given to the questions." Subsequently the Brewers' Association published a general formal answer quite inadequate, of which the "New York Herald" said:

The Moderation Society's inquiries about beer have been answered in good style by the Brewers' Association, but a general answer is not what is needed. The society and the public want to hear from individual brewers, and learn why one brand of beer seems to be slops; why another causes an intolerable smell while evaporating from glasses; why some kinds, taken in moderation, go to men's heads, and others, in small quantity, cause terrible demoralization of the digestive organs. Sensible men who drink beer freely are more violent than temperance men in their denunciation of some kinds of beer, and they speak from experience. Evidently the society will have to trust to analysis instead of formal reports.

A writer in the New York "Sun," in July, 1882, said:

I like lager beer, but the beer does not like me. Fifteen years ago I could drink fifty glasses of beer in one day and never get intoxicated, and have no headache the next morning. But it seems the beer is changed. If I drink eight glasses of beer of an evening my head is ready to burst the next day. Why is this? I do not have headache if I do not drink beer. If I drink two glasses of beer at my dinner it makes me sleepy and drowsy. My friends say it affects them the same way. A friend of mine told me he drank beer freely at a picnic, and he was paralyzed for three days. Some beer tastes pleasant when it is fresh and cool, but let it stand for some time and it tastes like medicine. There is no other drink I like better than lager beer, but the way they make it is a humbug. In former times they had a brewer to make beer, but now they have a chem

ist. I see and hear young men and old men every day this hot weather complain of the beer. Some say it gives them terrible headaches; others say it makes them sick.

Dr. Louis Arcularius said:

Many Germans I have met are unable to stand New York lager beer very long. This American stuff gives them headache, stomach ache, and all sorts of aches. Whether this is to be laid at the door of the foreign ingredients supposed to constitute our lager, I am not prepared to say, not having made any analysis with a view to learning something definite on the subject. After all, though, I am inclined to think what really does harm in beer is not the bi-carbonate of soda, glucose, or the bitter drugs, but simply the alcohol. If a man drinks twenty or thirty glasses a day he is bound to take in a comparatively large quantity of alcohol, which in the long run attacks the kidneys and brings about adiposity.

Dr. Messmer has had extensive suffering from the use of lager beer.

experience with people He said:

The lager beer sold in this city is not by any means a healthy drink. For reasons best known to themselves, many of our American brewers have taken to adulterating their beer on a very large scale. The list of drugs they use is a very long one. Most of the bitter herbs and drugs are substituted for hops. Among such drugs I could mention tannin and aloes, which are used in conjunction with one another. Tannin constipates and aloes regulate the bowels. Too large a dose of either drug is accompanied by serious results. Nux vomica is one of the most dangerous ingredients used. It attacks the system with rapidity and causes many ills. The adulteration of beer with nux vomica should be severely punished by law.

Dr. August Krehbiel, another undoubted authority, said:

Why, there is not a brewer here who doesn't doctor his beer with something or other! It is the use of bi-carbonate of soda that I object to. The brewers put it into the so-called vinegar sour, which goes into the beer for the purpose of accelerating fermentation. Bi-carbonate of soda is harmless enough when taken medicinally in small quantities, but, bless me! when every glass of beer you empty is overstocked with it the case becomes different, and no wonder you complain of stomach ache and other ills too numerous to mention.

A prominent druggist to a writer on the "Evening Mail" said:

There is no doubt that beer is adulterated with a number of bitter drugs. The best proof of this is that since the rise in the price of hops the demand for these drugs among the brewers has increased to such an extent as to render them very expensive. Cheratta root, an extremely bitter drug, has become so scarce since hops advanced in price that, while at that time it sold for 20 cents a pound, it can scarcely be had at $1 at present. The brewers have made away with it entirely. Camomile flowers were selling at 18 cents a pound three weeks ago, and are now worth 50 cents; gentian, which sold for 6 cents a pound, is selling for 15 cents, and quassia, which sold for 3 cents, is not to be bought at 15 cents. What better proof do you want that brewers employ other ingredients besides hops and malt in their beer?"

29

CHAPTER V.

THE DISTILLERS' AND SPIRIT DEALERS' MOVEMENTS.

O record the movements of the opposing forces with which the cause of temperance has to contend, cannot be regarded as beyond the scope of this volume.

For some years past the distillers and spirit dealers have endeavored by various local organizations, in different parts of the country, to combine for the promotion and protection of the liquor traffic; but it has been only within a comparatively short time that they have succeeded in effecting a union, in which the several local associa tions have been combined in a national organization. The objects of the organization are thus stated:

The protection and advancement of the interests of its members; the gathering and distribution of statistical and other information concerning the domestic and foreign trade in spirits; the devising and soliciting of appropriate legislation, and the modification or repeal of needless and obstructive laws and regulations; the guarding of the common interest against the encroachments of fanatical intolerance; the promotion of personal and commercial advancement; and the devising, whenever practicable, of means of limiting production to the demands of the trade, so as to secure an adequate return for the capital invested in the business and the labor and risks involved.

The principle involved in this effort is that, so long as spirits in some form are demanded and used in every State in the Union, and presumably always will be, the so-called prohibitory laws are the merest hypocrisy and delusion, and do gross injustice to the intelligent character of the liberty-loving American citizen; hence it is the duty of the association to do all it can to stop the agitation which aims at an impossibility-temperance being, like other virtues, a part of one's individual character,

which the strait-jacket can never improve. Therefore, the continued effort to make it a criminal offense to deal in an article so universally demanded by mankind is not only annoying and humiliating to those engaged in the traffic, but also disgraceful to .those connected with these' quixotic crusades. Those engaged in a business which contributes to the support of the government $75,000,000 annually cannot with reason be treated like outlaws. With this principle in view, strong efforts will be made by the association to secure proper legislation on the subject, with a view of supplementing the past sumptuary legislation with something which shall result in a more practical treatment on the subject.

Such are the objects of this association as set forth by the managers.

The first association had existed for some years, consisting of the distillers and spirit dealers of Illinois and Ohio, and some other States west of the Ohio River. An extended correspondence with the liquor fraternity in the United States resulted in a general meeting at Peoria, Ill., August 21 and 22; and another at Cincinnati, Ohio, November 20 and 21, 1879. At the latter meeting a national association was effected, and arrangements were made for annual sessions. A special meeting was called at Cincinnati, January 21 and 22, 1880, to perfect desired changes in the revenue laws, and to enlarge the association so as to include distillers, rectifiers, wholesale dealers, and importers. Two bills were formulated, under the titles of "Alcohol Leakage Bill" and the so-called "Carlyle Bill," and through the influence of the association in concentrating its forces, both of these bills were passed by Congress and adopted. By the first enactment Western distillers engaged in exportation were relieved of taxes pending, which amounted to $60,000, besides those constantly accumulating; by the latter bill, numerous "hinderances" and "annoyances were swept from the revenue

laws.

The second annual meeting was held in Cincinnati, October 13 and 14, 1880. At the opening of the meeting the association numbered 380 firms, representing almost every State in the Union. Its strength and influence had proportionately