NEW ENGLAND. 



145 



reputable among farraers to omit to offer cider to any casual visitor, or traveler ; it is usually 

 drawn in a mug or bowl. It is a slightly intoxicating liquor ; but is seldom taken in a quantity 

 that mtoxicates. The most usual bread in cities is made of wheat flour ; in the country the 

 common bread is made of a mixture of rye and Indian corn. The meal of the latter is also 

 boiled in water to the consistency of a thick paste, called " mush " or "hasty-pudding," which 

 is eaten in milk, or with butter and molasses ; and when cold cut into slices, and fried in butter 

 or lard. This is the subject of a poem, which, if not the best, is at least one of the most pop- 

 ular in New England. Perhaps, however, the true national dish, for which the absentee has the 

 greatest longing, is the white bean, which is baked with salt pork, and saturated with the fat. 

 No feast in the country is perfect, or indeed tolerable without it. The common dinner hour 

 in the country is at noon, and in cities froin one to three o'clock. The dinners are despatch- 

 ed in such haste that the table is often cleared in half an hour. 



The most general drinks after cider, are beer, and the various kinds of spirits. The use of 

 beer, however, has much diminished the consumption of spirits ; and the light French wines 

 which are growmg into use, are excellent substitutes for the deleterious mixtures of brandy and 

 other ingredients, that are sold as the wines of Portugal or Madeira. The West India rum, 

 brandy, gin, and whiskey are still much consumed ; and were formerly found at every inn, and 

 in too many other places. But the most deleterious spirit is the New England rum, which is 

 distilled from molasses, and sold so cheap that the wages of a day's labor will purchase three 

 gallons of it. Intemperance has been the great domestic curse of New England, compared 

 with which the sweeping of a plague would have been a visit of mercy. Three fourths of the 

 poverty and crime that lead to the alms-house and the prison, spring from this fruitful source. 



There is hardly a village in New England, where the traveler will not see houses marked with 

 the negligence and ruin that attend intemperance, and more than one miserable object, often 

 the wreck of a noble man, degraded below the rank of brutes, by habitual intoxication. The 

 tide of ruin, however, is fast receding. The numerous temperance societies have done much 

 to check the evil, and in Massachusetts a lavi' has been passed forbidding the sale of ardent 

 spirits in small quantities. 



18. Diseases. There are few diseases peculiar to New England. The most fatal and gen- 



19 



