COFFEE V BEER

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1918, 14 August 1888, Page 3

COFFEE V BEER

In a letter to the " Contract Journal " "A Merchant and Manuf aoturer " says:— " Daring some thirty years of active business life I have employed men m brickyards through the hottest weather and longest hours, gangs of dock laborers m discharging ships liable to demurrage if delayed, oanal boatmen, stone and slats masons indoors and out, and men who work at times m enamelling stoves, where the temperature may vary from 150 deg to 350 deg as well as m other branohes of manual labor. I have narrowly watched both classes of men, ' moderate drinkers' and teetotallers, and I have no hesitation m saying that the result of long and varied observation is that of all beverages men can drink spirits are the worst and beer is the next worat. Upon coffee they can last longer when a spell of real hard work has to be done than they oan upon beer, and I have known oases, where piece work or time contracts were m question, m which beer drinkers and coffee drinkers worked side by side, and where, after the first day or two, the coffee drinkers had so muoh the advantage of the others that the latter have voluntarily changed ' the drink ' for coffee m order to keep pace. The social advantages and the gain to the wives and families of the coffee drinkers have been bo manifestly the greater that, even if the phyeioal gains had been at all doubtful, one would gladly have submitted to any little loss that would have been involved by the disuse of alooholio stimulants. As a matter of faot, however, no pecuniary loss has been sustained through, teetotalism, though great losses have been, through the use of intoxicants, frequently inourred by our firm, notwithstanding all our care m seleoting only steady workmen, whether avowed total abstainers or otherwise. Bat I am, while I say this, m no wise a believer m coffee as a suitable beverage for working upon. However muoh better it may be than beer, it is far inferior to either ooooa or oatmeal drink. Men engaged m hard labor are like horses on a long journey; They do not so much need the Btimuluß of the spur as the heat (foroe) giving and fleßb forming properties of a good and nutritious diet. The loss of strength and tissue by perspiration must be constantly made up, or they will flag and give m. Coooa and oatmeal beverages are both food and drink. They contain force-giving and fleshforming principles, which neither beer nor coffee do to any appreciable extent, chemistry demonstrating that a gallon of beer contains only as muoh nutriment as a penny loaf.