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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 28 April 1908, Page 1

:r_.*..' iK3 iY&:u:- :■ '>iK_'.^6 ■ .. t '...W-.:, '-"I Becentl^ew :??«,'_ .."sld*. show" at the Fire Brigade' Bazaar in Eltham that created > fiomft,pmusement, A compartment was^gßt^iMd* off '- and jolacarded Forogie^ o^_. Admisioo 34. " 1 his excited tcuhpsity. at once, and various r limopra .were, .current concerning the propriety ,*of -. ffie . exhibition. Men paid the necessary fee to see the exhibition, and when they came out of the department were . unanimous in their denunciation aad, .nggested "that the thing should v bj.-,. stopped," Ladies looked askance. :,at.,,. ; t_e mysterious apartment, and, some declared it was a shame to _a.o,,s_cfc an exhibition. Memember, the. apartment was labelHed -For men only/*, ! and when visitors entered they saw hanging on a line, 0! shameful right! a |air of mena pants, a pair of old socks, a hat ??,♦ a s„ VeSt -s- T , he victims had *<> admit that the articles were for men only, spirit. Each victim when he came out denounced the iniquity of the show and did his best. to lure other victims into the trap. .__. — i_ui;_-i. .v.-,.,. . ..' Merv ..-■ ■.:■■■ The great majority of the people who drink whsiky do. noi trouble themselves to any extent aboufc- tfie origin of the spirit tfieyc are consuming. Whisky is. whisky to them; some of it good and some of it better, but none of it bad, and all of it whisky. Tie Home Government, however, is more -concerned for the drinkers than the drinkers are for themselves, and it has just appointed a Royal Commission to consider whait restrictions, declarations 'and periods should be prescribed in the- manufacture of the popular beverage. The commission is probably the outcome of the famous "What is whisky?" cass which arose through two tradesmen being fined 20s and £100 costs at the North London Police Court for unlawfully selling as Scots and Irish whisky a blend of pot-still and pafcent-still spirit. The Islington Boi .ugh. Council contended that .pure pot-still alone cama within, the definition of whisky. On January sth, 1907 the "defendants appealed to the Clerkenwell., Sessions, and k during many sittings of , the* Court a mass of expert evidence .oxs* the question [ "What, is whiskyT"- was.c^ed. On January Bth, at tHeyCounty-of^ondon Sessions, Mr Wallace postponed the appeals pending the decision, of the":*ppecial committee appointed ..By,, the "Local Government Board to consider 'ilia question, and the parties are still waiting the report of this committee. There can ba 'il-tl_ doubt that the" of iginal whisky, the "n.qnebaugh"!.of our eighteenth century forefathers, who "borrowed the name from the ■ Gaelic land anglicised .it, was made in a pot-still, which is simply a copper kettle, with a copper worm, cooled by water, for condensing the spirit. In this was placed a fermented fluid made, in the case of Scots whisky, by brewing malted barley, dried over a peat fire. Irish whisky was also originally manufactured by brewing raw barley and distilling the fluid in a potstill. Tho patent-still spirit is mado ni a more scientific apparatus of modem contrivance, and one of the great advantages of the process in an age of intense commercial competition is tho cheapness of the spirit -it produces. Whisky manufactured in this way does not cost more thnn a shilling a gallon, and but for the duty imposed by tne State could ba profitably- retailed at a penny a glass.