1903 The Flowing Bowl by Edward Spencer

8o THE FLOWING BOWL punishable with death and dismemberment. But they ran 'em just the same ; for in those days an Irishman was never really happy unless he were drinking, fighting, or being sentenced to death. But whether it was English, Scotch, Welsh, or Irish whisky, or French brandy, or Dutch gin, smuggling and illicit distilling were rampant through the centuries, and the Inland Revenue officer was no more respected or wor shipped than at the present day. Still there has not been much blood shed over those differences of opinion ; except in Western Pennsylvania at the close of the last century—a period when the greater part of the universe was fighting about something—when it took 15,000 soldiers from Washington to quell a riot amongst a populace discontented with the Excise regulations. Blending and diluting whiskies are for the most part done in the bonded warehouses. " All commercial spirit," says an authority on the sub ject, "however pure, contains a small proportion of impurities" (which sounds Irish) "or by products of distillation known as fusel-oil." It will relieve the minds of some to know that fusel- oil is merely a by-product of distillation, and not the "low-flash" stuff which causes the accidents with the cheap lamps. It used to be thought that during the " rnaturing," or " age ing," of whisky the constituents of fusel-oil underwent decomposition ; but my good friend Doctor James Bell, C.B., the chief Government analyst at Somerset House (he retired some three years ago), utterly refuted this theory by analysis. Whisky is, like brandy, naturally white, and