1938 Famous New Orleans Drinks and how to mix'em (3rd printing) by Stanley Clisby Arthur

"Thy secret pleasure turns to open shame, thy sugred tongue to bitter wormwood taste." Sha\espeare's Lucrece. 1593.

Absinthe Drinks According to some authorities, absinthe as a drink originated in Algeria, and French soldiers serving in the Frango-Algerian war (1830-47) introduced the green spirits to Paris upon their return from the North African country where the drink foimd strong favor along the boulevards. . In time the spectacle of bearded men and demi-mondes dripping their absinthes became one of the sights of Paris. Naturally, so fashionable a Parisian drink was not long in finding its way to the Little Paris of North America—New Orleans. The drink, which was spelled absynthe in New Or leans liquor advertisements in 1837, when it was appar ently first imported from France and Switzerland, was a liquor distilled from a large number of various herbs, roots, seeds, leaves, and barks steeped in anise. It also included Artemisia ashinthium, a herb known as "Wormwood' abroad, but called Herbe Sainte by the French-speaking population of Louisiana. In recent years wormwood has been condemned as harmful and habit- forming, and laws have been enacted forbidding its use in liquors in the United States and other countries. In addition to banning wormwood from manufactured liquor, the use of the word "absinthe" on bottles of modern concoctions which do not contain wormwood, is also banned. As a consequence, manufacturers of ab sinthe substitutes have been forced to adopt trade names. Thirty-four