1903 The Flowing Bowl by Edward Spencer

THE FLOWING BOWL

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are spent annually in Great Britain on spirituous liquors. Half of this sum, it may be fairly stated, is spent in the provinces. It may also be taken as read that 5 per cent of beer and stout is wasted, in the way of froth, spillings, and leav ings, and 3 per cent of spirits. This brings us face to face with the calculation that the value of our daily waste in drinks is nearly ,^6500. Carbonic acid gas is undoubtedly answerable for a lot of this waste. In The Old Guard a musical piece produced at the Avenue Theatre some years ago, Mr. Arthur Roberts in his instructions to Miss Phyllis Broughton who made a very comely stage barmaid par ticularly enjoined her, when drawing ale, to use her left hand to bring the handle down. " The right hand," he observed—of course it was all "gag"—"is for the froth." And then he shewed her how to make half a pint of liquor fill a pint measure. Of course there be some professional imbibers who would object stroiiP-lv and refuse to accept the froth programme • but on the other hand it pays the retailer, in the lone:- run. I am not going to re-tell the old story of the Quaker; but will only mention that in the early seventies the landlord of a favourite tavern in the Strand—a house of call for histrions which has since then been transmogrified and adorned with much bevelled glass and carved walnut —once confided to me that he made every bit of j^300 per annum out of his froth. His barmaids wereall of angelic appearance, with most beautiful heads of hair (the girls wore plenty of it in those days) and a wealth of pretty prattle. And the

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