FRENCH TIPPLE.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 290, 19 September 1874, Page 4

FRENCH TIPPLE.

•■v.- The 1 SwieH: Times.' gives the following account of, ' absinthe and its history:— ' . : - In t.ho canton of Neuchatel, in -the' long, broad, wild Yal cle Travcrs, famous for its nspbalte mines, is thfc sieat . oft he manufacture of absinthe. The . manufacture of this, pernicious drink: .-.dates 'bActi •to'-tbe 1 last- decades of the' eighteenth century A.'trench exile anil doctor, named'Ordinaire, who se- i l"Cte:l the vilbge. ef t-ouvet.. ab bis re-; ei Joni'o, is credited with first invention of absinthe, which 1 he employed as a medicine, .(irld. at his death' Dr. Ordinaire left his receipt to his servant girl, I Mdlle. Grandpierre. She sold it to I daughters of Lieut. Honriod, who grew ' the herbs required in their own garden, and carried .on the distil Lai ion of the liquor .in the kitchen.; : At the beginning of this; centary; the ' receipt was: Kola-'-to M. Pernod;''of Couvet, and from that period the -Extrait d'Ab- ".. appears in commerce. '!' he first-i.who manufactured the itrticlo on a large scale were Dubied (father and son),, and their, relative, Henry. Louis 'Pernrirl; sen., all three of Couvet. Of cotit'SO' the - ,production of the two houses was only limited'} the demand WaS neither large nor general, and the' i Want; of the essential .herbs foravsd another obstacle to the development of the mnhufacture, : Dubied and Pernod had no other sources for their ingredients than their own gardens!. ; By. degrees the demand for the eJctrait d'absinthe became greater, and with s't thtS ttulturi) 'of the heH*». In

1830" t¥e • -reeeipia -for the wermuth plantations in the four coinmiinea oi Oonvetj Motiers, "Fleurir, and Biittes; estimated at 1000:1200 louis d'ors, and it was said in: praise df- a, privn.lt' t/rower of Couvet tluiUie had sold alone -2500 francs worth -of the plant. 3?rom this time tho culture of tlie absinths plant assumed large proportions, 1 andi ■ to-day,- the. proprietors- derive large incomes from their absinthe fields in Couvofc. ./The village of' Boveresse sells yearly, more , than 6,000 francs'worth of the plant, and Motiers and Couvet in similar; proportions.- • • The quantity of absintbe manufactured ;in the. Yal de Travel's at the present- day •is estimated -at about 370,000 litres: 'i he herb (Artemisia absinthium*) of which the.absiuthe is first prepared; is a plant growing ito a : height of :from two. to four feet. It is found throughout Central Europe on.stony hills, and alsq in gardens: Consumers of. absinthe are principally found in France, North America, and Switzerland, although the hurtful, effect of theliquor on the nervous system has been repeatedly pointed out by medical men." '

The boy who, when asked to -what trade, he would : wish to be brought up, replied, " I will a be trustee, because ever since papa has been a trustee we have pudding for dinner," was a. wise child in his generation. At a concert in New York recently, a favourite singer was called back, when a rival in the ■ same • line called out, " What's the matter? Didn't she do it right? Are the folks angry ''cause she squalled so. " A Paris correspondent says "Jet embrodiery Has become quite a furdre. One sees women clad from head to foot in black,-and yet'so dazzling from the quan-tity-of jet beads they carry that' one can scarcely look at them without winking.

A Funny-looking House.—There is a -fitness jn the facetions Mark Twain having a funny-looking house.. The re'sidence he has just built in Hartford, U.S, where he was going to set up as a familyman, is- described as a cross between a shot tower and deaf and dumb asylum.