1903 The Flowing Bowl by Edward Spencer

THE FLOWING BOWL

on the wines of bonnie Scotland made another statement at the same time which is eminently calculated to remove all fears lest whisky, like brandy, be on the down line. "The serpent Alcohol," remarks a writer in the Daily Tele graphy in discussing Mr. Dewar's speech, " may have been scotched" — was this meant for a joke?—"but it is far from having been killed." According to the Ex-SherifF's statistics the dis tillation of Irish whisky, despite its diminishing popularity, has increased during the last fourteen years by about thirty per cent; while in Scot land during the same period the increase has been at the rate of nearly eighty per cent. Ireland, that is to say, which produced eleven million gallons in 1884, now produces fourteen million and a half gallons ; while the Scotch output, which was eighteen million gallons in the former year, had risen in 1898 to the enor mous figure of thirty-three millions and a half. Hech sirs ! these be braw figures indeed. Yet let not the British be held up to reproba tion as hard drinkers, as long as France is a going concern. Statistics prove that in Scotland, the land o' the barley bree, the consumption of spirits during the year 1892-93 averaged a little more than twelve and a half pints per month, which is little more than the proportion of spirits required by the Parisians, without wine, absinthe, and—other things. The boulevardiers are called " temperate," although they drink as much spirits as do the Scots, and thirty times as much wine, not to mention cider and beer. Distilling in Britain dates from the eleventh