1914 Beverages de luxe

Mr. Davis thinks that it was about the year IGGO that lluiii- bullion was clipped of two of its syllables, but the hrst mention of the abridged word in any public document in Barbadoes ap- pears to have been in an act passed in 1668 to prevent the sale of both brandy and rum in the tippling houses near the most frequented highways or roads of the island. The word "Hum," however, occurs in certain orders of the Government and coun- cil of Jamaica as early as 1661. As to the exact date of the beginning of this industry in the United States, Rum appears to have been manufactured in New England before 1687, as "New England Rum" sold in that year at Is. 6d. per gallon, which is practically to-day's wholesale price for New Rum, not including the internal revenue tax. In the old days of this country many of the best men of the town of Boston, in addition to being great ship owners, were distillers of New England Rum, those two industries being put down in the history of the times as two of the most important in Boston, and the commodity itself was not only used as a staple for family consumption and as a cheering adjunct to official and social events, as the hiying of corner stones of pub lie buildings and the building of churches, but was early used as one of the great instruments in assisting to civilize and Chrstianize our black brothers in Africa. During all of the time since, the distillation of Rum has been contined almost entirely to New England, all the Rum made in this country, in fact, having come to bear the distinctive name, "New England Rum," as being different from the imported article. The Rum of domestic use to-day, which has been aged for many years in the wood, is very different from the "hot, hellish, and terrible liquor" above referred to. Much care is taken by tiiose distillers making a specialty of fine old Rum in the selec- tion of their molas.ses, the fermentation and distillati(ni, as well as in the selection of the barrel and storage in which it is kept. Both as an art and an industry, the business of distilling Rum has remained, as a sort of heirloom, through successive genera- tions in some of our oldest and most resjiectable New England families, who have taken pride and pains in bringing it up to the highest attainable standard of jierfection. The general tendency noticeable in other lines of business, too numerous to specify individually, toward consolidation, or at least towards fewer and larger manufacturing iilants, has applied as well to the manufacture of New England Rum, and while in 1753 there were sixty-three distilleries in Ma.s.sachusetts, and fifty years ago perhaps thirty small distilleries scattered along the New England coast from New Haven to Portland,