San Francisco Chronicle from San Francisco, California • Page 6

tv Jt i miJIiPS llPSifflJvw JBa mf mmmmmmmmmmLmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmimimmmimmammmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmammmma Hf Mv i rV I 4ft4 siBVcm 7 4 years ago But the ancient Egyptian Were not restricted to wine1 They knew how to make beer more than 6000 years ago This was brewed fronvred barley and there were two kinds One was very strong in alcohol and the other was apparently only slightly alcoholic perhaps 4 forecast of the beer that some of the brewers of today are talking about makifjg after July 1 Although the Egyptian civilization is the oldest of which we have knowledge it is not certain that they were the first to experiment iwith intoxicating liquors In Egypt Greece and Rome alcohol has been known for soy Jong a pcriodthat the people ascribed the invention of it ito their gods And it has been inferred that the pre historic people who had reached a partially civilized development in Switzerland perhaps 7000 years ago may have known the taste of wine for grape seeds have been found in the re mains of their ruined houses LVfi An Assyrian drinldng scene froiqananc guests at feast marching up to a large Vessel to fill their cups The last man in line carries a skin an evidence of the primitive ways from which that people had just emerged ii ii ii i nil i mi i Ii MODEL OF EGYPTIAN WINE PRESS TRACED AFTER 3400YEARS iURNING QUESTION AGIjATES MjaND Through ml ages 1 i i i I i mmmmimmwmmm ni I1 i FIRST INSTALLMENT CoprrijM J010 A GOOD many ways the approach of the day when prohibition is to be enforced throughout the United States is one of the epochal events of history Other things than alcohol have been put under the ban of law gambling slavecy and numerous others that have seemed harm ful tothe progress of mankind But none of these have been so universal as alcohol nor has any one of than been traced so far baak into the dimmest periods of human history So it seems now the timeliest of timely subjects for illustration and dissertation Everyoneis familiar with the war that lias been wiged against alcohol i this country and with the details lif the victory that has been won over it Npw that so few weeks remain during which intoxicating liquors can sold it wilt bam Orth while to glance at its history and as we come nearer our own time to notice the gathering strength of the prohibition movement and its xspt notable manifestations First of all what is alcohol It is a colorless liquid thai can be manufactured by fermentatiqn and distillation 5 iI I itzmmMnijfrg i 1 I from practically any starchy drf sugar containing material Although the possible materials are practically numberless only a few are of great importance to theliquor traffic of today These are cereals and potatoes among the Starchy plants and grapes sugar cane and cane molasses among those rich in sugar Beer Known to Egyptians More Than 6000 Year Ago When was alcohol first used as a drink That is one of the question that can never be answered The picture reproduced on this pgc of Wine Drinking in Egypt More Than 3000 Years Ago is one of the earliest that we possess of a drinking scene It shows an ancient Egyptian with his wife child and servants The child is holding up a lotus flower for his father to smell and a attendant is inviting him to drink from a bowl of wine The little lines projecting from the bowland topped with circles represent flowers which the Egyptians were fondof using in their wine bowls because of their fragrance and decorative effect This picture of more than thirty centuries ago seems far enough removed from us in time but authorities upon the curious life of that earliest period of a high civilization say that the Egyptians had at least four kinds ot wine 6000 The Spies Bringing Grapes From the Promised Land from the drawing by Guitare Dore When the wanderings in the Wilderness were nearing a close Moses sent twelve men out to explore the Jand they were approaching Two of them are shown returning bearing between them a gigantic fluster of grapes jJHIII ifl ll i iWIlllWWWWIIWWIMblMyilillll II IWIIIj MHIlWdm Ta JTJ nr jT nwTMtr1 mmiLI 1g jJnJBTMHt jKnBL 1 oil I iWI wm WwmFwlrm rrwaBTrTrf nTiiwr IMt MfflHiHll iffW iiMHIw MS 1 1 MlKiW WflkkkkkKtRkkkVLH kkkHniHflklHkkkklkkF Tyj frMtMC pi Mp NUMEROUS other pictures of Egyptian drinking scenes and vineyard could be reproduced here to show how general was the practice of winedrinkfng many thousands of yeais ago Butpefliaps the most interesting of all these drawings of bygone days is the accompanying one bran Egyptian wine press which shows how the grape juicewas secured This is not as Egyptian pictures go a very Old one for it represents a scene at the period of the New Empire which was inaugurated about 3400 years ago This Egyptian wine press is a yery primitive affair but in Southern Europe today it is possible to find spccimensAthat differ yery slightly from it The grapes yyere heaped into a box and the juice was trodden out by men who stepped on them withjiaked feet The picture shows very realisticallyhow the wine ran out into vats below At the right are shown the big jars ranged in rows after being filled and a man fill ing one from a jug Cabaret Patterned After Ancient Drinking Parties From pictures and ancient parchments it is possible to discover a good deal about Egyptian drinking patties They seem to haye anticipated the cabaret which several thousand years later became regarded as an innovation on Broadway At feasts it was apparently the accepted thing to have music played and to look on at dancing while eating and drinking Alcohol had the same effect centuries ago that it has today The guests chant rollicking drinking songs and are merry and light hearted But then they drink too much According to one contemporary the banquet is disordered by drunkenness One extremely realistic picture upon a tomb depicts a lady of apparently high birth and standing who is grievously ill from her potations Nor was the morning after any pleasanter in ancient Egypt than it has been in other times and lands Americans who wake up with a hangover have been accustomed to find solace in ice water The Egyptian hard drinkers of centuries ago found cabbages the best remedy Parallel Found for Every Bibulous Phase A Greek Writer has preserved two ancient sayings which have been translated into English Wife quick 1 some cabbage boil of virtuous Healing That I may rid me of this seedy feeling Last evening you were drinking deep So now your head aches Go to sleep Take some boiled cabbage when you wake And theres an end of your headache It js possible to find a parallel to almost everything in modem life in the Egypt of cen jKk BSSSSSSSSSSSSsB JT siH mVV 1 A 1 1 sr la9C JBX lrTJ ii1 jbiiV isiiV Vsk il BV yi 1 tmf tLf II 1 aY iH i 4BiSM fiB I 1 kw BW 4 Ir II 1 1 1 mK hrsW I 11 Binii Wine drinking in Egypt morelhAn 3000 years ago showini iffifc iSSSM i mi yr num jwiiiiji i turies aco Thus we find the temperance reformer Here are tHi5rdo a teacher addressed to an erring youtlu Drink not beer to exe9Ph words that come out of thy mouth thou canst not recall 1 nqtSf4ai and break thy limbs and no one reaches out a hand to thee Thxcpirrjrane vo on drinkine thev stand uo and sav Away with this fellaT2R drunkl If anyone should then seek thee to ask counsel of thjeipt woulstbeifound lymg in the dust like a little child WtSfc1W NATIVES OF BABYLON ANDASSYRIAN irfVENT EARLY DRINKING GODE TnAVORABLE I geographic conditions made Egypt the seat oftheifirs greatcmlizatiorf and the same cause was responsible for thevtjse Babylonia and Assyria And like the ancient Egyptians the Babylon ians and Assyrians experimented with alcohol The picture reproduced herewith entitled VAn Assyrian Prinking Scene shows three guests at aij Assyrian feast marching up to a large vessel to till tlieir wine cups in mancominelast in the line carries a skin an evidence presumably not greater thirst but of the primitive ways from which the Assyrians hadje cently emerged There are numerous ancient drawings of this character andin many of them the cups are so ornate in design and so varied in form that they prove a highegree of artistic skill Several inscriptions have also been found in the ruins of Nmevehjthat giye lists of wines in vogue arnong the Assyrians One of these has ast of ten different wines that were supplied for the royal table of Assur banii pal Uther lists give an even greater variety Spirit DiiHlIed Fi om Pates and Palm Tree Sap The Assyrians evidently knew a greatdeal about alcohol Not only did they make wine from grapes but they also distilled spirits from dates and jromtnesap 01 tne paim ou tree According to one auuiomyAiieapy lonians had advanced so far in civilization or perhaps one should term 1 decadence that they had a mixed drink that seems to have rivaled th modern absinthe in its capacity to undermine the constitution of the drinker It obstructs the heart blinds the eyes and emaciates the body say this contemporary treatise Three of the ingredients are mentioned whej of milk a rare kind of salt and bread so old that it was not edible The widespread prevalence of the liquor traffic in ancient times strikingly emphasized by a huge inscribed monument in tlie Kirtgiifira Tfl fi il 1 I I rMl jidui du iiiiciv siaic su powcriui insi it wunuatK us iimcuciiumcjut beintr conquered by the Babylonians jB Here among many law of the twenty third century sfeT5erJl cen turies before Moses gave his code to his people is one that readsi ILriofou persons assemble in the house of a wine merchant and those rifetSuY pei sons she seizes not and drives to the palace that wine merchant slialllJepu Noah in hit vineyard JromE Boyd Smiths drawing After They Came Out of the Ark used by permissionof Putnams Sons New York The first mention of wine in the Old TeVtamept makes Noah the plantexijof the first vineyard fmwTvz momM smm 5UV tI ft 1 Vmi jriii tLjSXf iffT rmr A1j5 Mi rss 1 WWI Si LofJi ai TMV llfflK il tJ Ks9IFIBHbIYA irii4B Uf mm wwnSiBiT1 ffMoi i T3 Mppm 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