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Re: Period Liquor for Alcoholics
George Sala was a British travel writer who visited the North in 1864-1865. These references to alcoholic drinks are civilian, but the military probably partook if they ever got a chance.
Sala, George Augustus. My Diary in America in the Midst of War. 2nd ed. London: Tinsley Brothers, 1865. 2 vols.
vol. 2, p.313 When seltzer and sherry are taken, they are gulped down early in the morning, to cure the ailments known as “hot coppers” or “whisky in the hair.” As a rule, our cousins loathe the very sight of port wine; but they drink it sometimes, because it is very dear and sounds grand. Hot grog is sometimes imbibed in the winter time, but it is taken standing—and gulped, not sipped. Much as you may have heard about mint juleps, egg noggs, cobblers, smashes, Windsor-coolers, skins, morning glory, Tom and Jerry, private smiles, corpse revivers, fiscal agents, four-forty-four, Jersey lightning, monitor, swamp-angel, eye-opener, moustache-twister, gin-sling, timble doodle, stone fence, with other professed “American drinks”—there are said to be three hundred and sixty-five of them, one for every day in the year—the majority of these high-sounding beverages are of a purely “fancy” order, devised by cunning bar-keepers down town to puff their establishments, and others are purely [p.314] mythical. In very hot weather a cobbler or a julep is occasionally taken; but throughout the States, and in all classes of society, the two universal drinks are, early in the morning, the cocktail—a mixture of alcohol, bitters, and sugar—and at any period of the day or night a dram of Bourbon whisky very slightly diluted with ice-water. The drinkers rush into a bar; the bar-keeper hands them the whisky bottle; they pour out as much or as little as they choose, add a dash of water, and swallow the mixture as though it were a seidlitz powder. No other mystery is there in the grand ceremony of “taking the oath,” “putting oneself outside suthin’,” or “liquoring up.” And then they bolt away from the bar, to meet perhaps on the threshold a friend, with whom they immediately return, and “take the oath,” or “put themselves outside suthin’” again. . . . [p.315] Drinking and “taking tobacco” are looked upon in decent society in the country towns as simply vicious and shameful habits, and nothing is commoner than to hear a person spoken of as “having no vices,” meaning that he neither drinks, smokes, nor chews. As regards the other sex, ninety-nine women out of a hundred never touch anything stronger than iced-water, tea, and coffee, whence, among other causes, their wasted forms, their pallid complexions, and the unhealthiness of their children.
Vicki Betts
vbetts@gower.net
George Sala was a British travel writer who visited the North in 1864-1865. These references to alcoholic drinks are civilian, but the military probably partook if they ever got a chance.
Sala, George Augustus. My Diary in America in the Midst of War. 2nd ed. London: Tinsley Brothers, 1865. 2 vols.
vol. 2, p.313 When seltzer and sherry are taken, they are gulped down early in the morning, to cure the ailments known as “hot coppers” or “whisky in the hair.” As a rule, our cousins loathe the very sight of port wine; but they drink it sometimes, because it is very dear and sounds grand. Hot grog is sometimes imbibed in the winter time, but it is taken standing—and gulped, not sipped. Much as you may have heard about mint juleps, egg noggs, cobblers, smashes, Windsor-coolers, skins, morning glory, Tom and Jerry, private smiles, corpse revivers, fiscal agents, four-forty-four, Jersey lightning, monitor, swamp-angel, eye-opener, moustache-twister, gin-sling, timble doodle, stone fence, with other professed “American drinks”—there are said to be three hundred and sixty-five of them, one for every day in the year—the majority of these high-sounding beverages are of a purely “fancy” order, devised by cunning bar-keepers down town to puff their establishments, and others are purely [p.314] mythical. In very hot weather a cobbler or a julep is occasionally taken; but throughout the States, and in all classes of society, the two universal drinks are, early in the morning, the cocktail—a mixture of alcohol, bitters, and sugar—and at any period of the day or night a dram of Bourbon whisky very slightly diluted with ice-water. The drinkers rush into a bar; the bar-keeper hands them the whisky bottle; they pour out as much or as little as they choose, add a dash of water, and swallow the mixture as though it were a seidlitz powder. No other mystery is there in the grand ceremony of “taking the oath,” “putting oneself outside suthin’,” or “liquoring up.” And then they bolt away from the bar, to meet perhaps on the threshold a friend, with whom they immediately return, and “take the oath,” or “put themselves outside suthin’” again. . . . [p.315] Drinking and “taking tobacco” are looked upon in decent society in the country towns as simply vicious and shameful habits, and nothing is commoner than to hear a person spoken of as “having no vices,” meaning that he neither drinks, smokes, nor chews. As regards the other sex, ninety-nine women out of a hundred never touch anything stronger than iced-water, tea, and coffee, whence, among other causes, their wasted forms, their pallid complexions, and the unhealthiness of their children.
Vicki Betts
vbetts@gower.net
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