BEER V. THRIFT AND DOMESTIC ECONOMY. 



In a Speech, Town Hull, Wallingford. 



T. Bland Garland, Esq., of Burghfield, denied that beer or any other 

 alcoholic drink was necessary. There were excellent substitutes. Beer was 

 a luxury, and nobody should drink it if they could not afford it. And no 

 man could afford it who had made no provision for sickness or old age. Men 

 should be remunerated in some other way than by giving them beer. They 

 had no right to take a man's wages and convert it to poison, and they ought 

 not to educate their boys as drunkards. They tried to emulate the men. 

 People sometimes said there was no harm in a pint a day ; but this was five 

 shillings a month. And 3s. 4d. a month, saved by a man 26 years of age, 

 would give him 12s. a week sick pay to the age of 70, and 12s. per week 

 annuity after 70. And a man had no right to his pint a day till he had made 

 some provision for sickness and old age. No young man must look any more 

 to out-door relief. And farmers too often forget that by giving beer in part 

 payment of wages, they first ruin the men and then have to support them. 

 Beer was not really good for them, and it only added to their thirst ; in a 

 quarter of an hour a man wanted some more. A substitute should be provided. 

 He then gave his experience . Seven years ago he began to get uneasey about 

 his labourers, and he said to his bailiff" I won't give any more beer." " Then, 

 Sir," he said, " you won't get your hay cut, it will not answer." " Well," I 

 said, I won't give any more. We will do as much as we can ourselves and the 

 rest we'll leave. The Bailiff was left to make the arrangements. After the 

 harvest, I said, " What about the tea ? '' ** Why," he said, " the men had 

 done much more work in the time, and had done it better ; I have been a 

 Bailiff for the last 25 years and this is the only year I have been master." He 

 had started a cocoa shop on his farm, and people came again and again. He 

 had also adopted the same plan with his domestic servants, and gave £5 to each 

 man and d63 to each woman in place of beer, and found that he had saved £36 

 a year by it. He begged those gentlemen who were present to give this a 

 fair trial. 



'• Let me tell you what happened in my own county. Two years ago, 

 when the Bishop of the Diocese, who always gives one large garden party in 

 the course of the summer, and collects his neighbours from 10, 12 or 15 miles 

 round ; when he gave his garden party he directed his butler that no beer 

 should be given. When the coachmen and servants came they were told 

 there was no beer, only they might have as much tea, coffee and milk as 

 they liked. I asked what was the feeling amongst the men. The reply was 

 " They were all delighted." The butler didn't hear one single grumble or 

 mutter upon the occasion. A great nobleman in the same county did as I 

 believe he has never done before ; the coachmen were told at five o'clock there 

 would be the same five o'clock tea for them that there was for their masters 

 and mistresses. They went and were all just as much pleased as they were on 

 the other occasions." — Canon Ellison's Sfeech, Willis's Rooms. 



" For the last two or three years I have gone in for neither beer or beer 

 money. I, on engaging men servants, and my wife, when engaging women 

 sei-vants (and she is thoroughly with me on this matter), put it before them 

 that we do not recognise beer or spirits in any way as a necessity, and there- 

 fore we say — " Your wages will be so much, and if you like to consider so 

 much as wages and so much as beer money you can, but we do not. We give 

 you a lump sum in the form of wages." Aud though I have never made it a 

 stipulation with any servant that he or she should be a teetotaller, yet both the 

 men and women servants have all very shortly after coming under our roof 

 become total abstainers, and there is not such a thing as beer seen in the ser- 

 vants' hall." — Charles E. Tritton's Speech, Willis s Booms. 



HOME-MADE DRINKS FOR THE HARVEST FIELD. 



A Good Harvest Drink. — 1 lb. of brown sugar, ^ oz. hops, i oz. ot 

 ginger (bruised), 1^ gall, of water ; boil the hops and ginger for 26 minuters, 

 add the sugar and boil ten minutes more, then strain and bottle while hot ; 

 it will be ready for drinking when cold, but is better if kept a few days. 

 Dried horehound may be used instead of hops. 



