1892 Drinks of the world

DRINKS.

139

in terrorem. Idleness, poverty, misery, and distress, which drives even to madness and death, are the only objects that are to be seen ; and not a house in toler- able condition but the pawnbrokers and gin shop. The same moral is taught by Cruikshank, but not before his conversion to teetotalism. Schiedam is the metropolis of gin, and its numerous distilleries are omnivorous, taking with equal relish car- goes of rye and buckwheat from Russia, and damaged rice or any cereal from other countries, and sometimes also potato spirit from Hamburg. The distillery of De Kuypers is probably that of the greatest note, and that firm's black square bottles, packed in cases filled with hemp husks, are known all over the world. In Africa " square face " is king, but he frequently holds some counterfeit liquor, even some- times the vilest of Cape Smoke. Schiedam is the Mecca of the Dutchman, the birth- place of his beloved Schnapps. This drink is always acceptable, and fifty good reasons exist for drinking it. The chief varieties of the aromatised popular spirit called gin are now known as Geneva, Hollands, and Schiedam. It is current in some parts of Africa as a species of coin. Since, however, every distiller varies his materials and their proportions, the species of this beverage are practically unlimited. Generally, however, the distinc- tion is clear between Hollands or Dutch and English gin. The former is commonly purer than the highly flavoured and too frequently adulterated British pro- duct.