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EXTRAVAGANT LIVING. 95
culty, be dissolved. At dinner they devour boiled pastes, called absurdly,
puddings, garnished with the most luscious sauces. Their turnips and other
vegetables are floated in lard or butter. Their pastry is nothing but a greasy
paste, imperfectly baked. To digest these various substances, they take tea
immediately after dinner, so strong that it is bitter to the taste,1 as well as
utterly destructive to the nervous system. Supper presently follows, with
salt meat and shell-fish in its train. Thus passes the whole day, in heaping
one indigestible mass upon another. To brace the exhausted stomach, wine,
rum, gin, malt spirits or beer are used with dreadful prodigality."
" Dreadful prodigality" is not extravagant in describing the drinking
habits of the people of Maryland a hundred years ago. They consumed an
enormous volume of liquors for such a small population, and they drank
indiscriminately at all hours of the day and night. West India rum was the
favorite drink of the people, because the cheapest, and it was bought by the
puncheon. Every cellar had its barrel of cider, and besides these, and the
Bordeaux and. sherry and Madeira wines, and the French brandies, and delicate Holland gins, there were cordials, syrups, and every sort of ale and beer.
Drunkenness was so common as to excite no remark, and drinking after dinner and at parties was always hard, prolonged and desperate, so that none
but the most seasoned old topers, the judges, squires and parsons, of six-bottle
capacity, ever escaped with their sea-legs in an insurable condition.
The people of the bay sides, as we have seen, resorted to the canoe, the
pinnace, or the bateau, in going from place to place; but, where water routes
were not available, the means of locomotion, though various, were all primitive. Long journeys were made on horseback. People of consequence rode
in their coaches, with four horses attached, the leaders mounted by liveried
postillions. So Washington came from New York to Annapolis, to attend
the ball given there in his honor after the peace. He left New York, December 4, and arrived at Annapolis, December 17, thirteen days to a ride which
may now be made inside of eight hours. So Washington went to Philadelphia from Mount Vernon to attend the Constitutional Convention, having to
lie over at Havre-de-Grace all night because it was too stormy to cross the
Susquehannah. The stage-coach was just coming into use in this country at
the time of which we write, and the importance of regular communication
between one point and another was beginning to be seen. There were a few,
but not many post-routes, and these chiefly maintained by private enterprise.
The carrier's cart plied between Alexandria and Philadelphia, by way of
Baltimore; the Conestoga wagon was the means of communication between
Baltimore and Harrisburg, Frederick, Hagerstown. etc., while these outlying
places in their turn were brought into intercourse with the backwoods and
the wilderness by means of strings of pack-horses. The intercourse of Baltimore with the North was maintained by the quickest route, via Newcastle
and Rock Hall. The post-riders to Annapolis crossed over into Kent Island
1 M. Volney does not explain how it comes becomes so strong after dinner—but the incon-
atout that the tea which is so weak at breakfast gruity helps out his theory.
| Title | History of Maryland - 2 |
| Creator | Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas) |
| Publisher | J. B. Piet |
| Place of Publication | Baltimore |
| Date | 1879 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000120 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | EXTRAVAGANT LIVING. 95 culty, be dissolved. At dinner they devour boiled pastes, called absurdly, puddings, garnished with the most luscious sauces. Their turnips and other vegetables are floated in lard or butter. Their pastry is nothing but a greasy paste, imperfectly baked. To digest these various substances, they take tea immediately after dinner, so strong that it is bitter to the taste,1 as well as utterly destructive to the nervous system. Supper presently follows, with salt meat and shell-fish in its train. Thus passes the whole day, in heaping one indigestible mass upon another. To brace the exhausted stomach, wine, rum, gin, malt spirits or beer are used with dreadful prodigality." " Dreadful prodigality" is not extravagant in describing the drinking habits of the people of Maryland a hundred years ago. They consumed an enormous volume of liquors for such a small population, and they drank indiscriminately at all hours of the day and night. West India rum was the favorite drink of the people, because the cheapest, and it was bought by the puncheon. Every cellar had its barrel of cider, and besides these, and the Bordeaux and. sherry and Madeira wines, and the French brandies, and delicate Holland gins, there were cordials, syrups, and every sort of ale and beer. Drunkenness was so common as to excite no remark, and drinking after dinner and at parties was always hard, prolonged and desperate, so that none but the most seasoned old topers, the judges, squires and parsons, of six-bottle capacity, ever escaped with their sea-legs in an insurable condition. The people of the bay sides, as we have seen, resorted to the canoe, the pinnace, or the bateau, in going from place to place; but, where water routes were not available, the means of locomotion, though various, were all primitive. Long journeys were made on horseback. People of consequence rode in their coaches, with four horses attached, the leaders mounted by liveried postillions. So Washington came from New York to Annapolis, to attend the ball given there in his honor after the peace. He left New York, December 4, and arrived at Annapolis, December 17, thirteen days to a ride which may now be made inside of eight hours. So Washington went to Philadelphia from Mount Vernon to attend the Constitutional Convention, having to lie over at Havre-de-Grace all night because it was too stormy to cross the Susquehannah. The stage-coach was just coming into use in this country at the time of which we write, and the importance of regular communication between one point and another was beginning to be seen. There were a few, but not many post-routes, and these chiefly maintained by private enterprise. The carrier's cart plied between Alexandria and Philadelphia, by way of Baltimore; the Conestoga wagon was the means of communication between Baltimore and Harrisburg, Frederick, Hagerstown. etc., while these outlying places in their turn were brought into intercourse with the backwoods and the wilderness by means of strings of pack-horses. The intercourse of Baltimore with the North was maintained by the quickest route, via Newcastle and Rock Hall. The post-riders to Annapolis crossed over into Kent Island 1 M. Volney does not explain how it comes becomes so strong after dinner—but the incon- atout that the tea which is so weak at breakfast gruity helps out his theory. |
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