BEER AND MILK

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 2, 13 November 1878, Page 6

BEER AND MILK

It is a sign of the times that in the last three numbers of Truth there has been a column, more or less, in dispraise of alcohol and praise of raillr. The following correspondence appeared in the last number: —

"I am glad to see that you arejpreaehing the advantages of milk aa a drink. I was very ill, dyspeptic, low-spirited, and all that sort of thing. I was told to abjure beer, wine and spirits, and to drink milk with a little lime-water in it. This I have done for the last sis months • I am now quite well, as strong as a' horse, and l prefer my milk to any other potation."

"What you say about milk is quite true. Iv the city many hundreds of cleks have adopted it as a beverage. At severai shops where they are in the habit of lunching, it is to be obtained, and these shops are so full during the lunch hour that one has a positive difficulty to get into them. I suppose that it is not sold at restaurants because there is a greater profit on fermented liquors, but if your observations induce them to sell it, you will have conferred a great boon upon the public." "For sixteen years I was a cripple from gout, and I never knew what, a month was without a serious attack, when someone told me to eat what I liked, but to drink nothing except milk. 1 ,have done this for teu months, and have not had a twinge." "You are quite right in what you say about milk. Drunkenness or sobriety is not the result of legislation, but of the' liquor that is habitually consumed. Thus England, if you will allow me aa an American to say so, is a more drunken country than France, because the beer and spirits consumed by Englismen are more potent than the light wines of France. In Germany, too, there is far less drunkenness than with yuu, because the German beer is less heady than the English. In my country there ia a great deal of tippling of spirits in the large towns, mainly because an invitation to drink is regarded aa convivial and by accepting the invitations people pet their insidea into such a condition that they feel 'down' when not under the influence of stimulants. But in most of the country districts of the Northern States milk is the staple drink, whilst in city hotels, both North and South, the consumption of milk aa an agreeable beverage ia enormous."

'Tou are doing a public service in advocating the sale of unfermented liquors. The wholesale price of lemonade is three halfpence per bottle. I wnt to know why it is never retailed under four-pence, and often for sixpence? Surely the retailers would have a very fair profit were they to sell it at twopeace halfpenay per bottle.'