SKETCHER.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1977, 4 March 1893, Page 2 (Supplement)

SKETCHER.

Brinks of Pojvsilar People.

—3 fPerhapa one might theoriae about char acter from favorite drinks aa much aa Irom " palmistry" or handwriting, fiat vi see. Napoleon hafl tho heart, if ever a man had, of a despot. Ha drank atrong, black coffee, the Sultana drink, and Chambsrtin, the riob wice of princes. Cromwell and Gaorge of Clarence wera both ambitious, with very opposite endinga. Both loved Milrnsoy, which tradition asserts drowned tbe latter in the Jewel Tower. B'ehelieu, tho cold, crafty, calculating cardinal, loved the thin red wine of Modoo. The msgniGcent ona high-spirited rnonaroha, Henry VI II. and Francis of France, loved whai Fal=ta2 bold 3to bo so inspiriting —namely, " a cood shcrria sack." Filznund Ksan'd erratic, lE'iqnUi.ob?! geuiua and mad caicer were noiuisMed on brandy, whica W£3, iryl^d. Ufa f > the ur. happy tragedian. D7>:iu t.-11-j U3 th=s afcor his rehup, utro:3y broken, in 1372, only constant glasa-;^ of " brown br»ndy, very hot and very eUong," enabled him to gst through hi>J sa^ns?. Aidi3oa'rf po!Uhc3 equable ea=aya were wrHton ca EQclti&to potations of escelif.no claret. Ohsrlea Lsmb, most psrennisHy charming of essayists, ws3 a thorough Londoner in haarfc, and hia favorite driak waa genuina London porter. Pitt and Eldon, who represen'el tha older order of things, both loved port, of which tbe chancellor could drink tbrea bottles, Peter the 'ire&t waa a geciu3 and eqaally a barbarian, vrHh r, fhry fsaipsr and uubridled will. Wa are aot snrpri?e<3, speaking as theorists, to fiad that hU favorite beverage wsb brandy and popper. King Jjhn was an unbridled and fiercsly cruel tyrant. And if, as G. E. yisna aaya in ono of big %riph«o stories, a niaTi'd disordered livor can make him a fiend, what wonder ? For King John loved drau3ht9 o* new ale, a Burfe'S of which, with peaches, h sappooed to have led to hia death. Dr. Johneca was a strange mixture c? Toryism of the ancient eighteenth crntur? aohool— bread and many-linsd kno-^ledgj and goodnes3 of heart snd life — and gj"sc.3 nervousness. Ha loved io mo;Vr.tliai« punch and port wine, and by his own description was " a hardened and shameless tea drinker, whose ketile had seldom time to cool. 11 One cannot theorise about Person, ths famous Greek eoholar, who, it is said, could " oap 11 from memory any line quoted from tha three • Greek tragedians, iEschuylus, Sophocles or Earipides, for he draak anything. Indeed, it is said, in a lady's absence with the keys, he vowad, much to her husband'a annoyancs, that aha had a private bottle of epidta, and, rummsging about, found one, still more to hia friend a annoyance, of whioh ha dr&nk the contents. Ha left on the lady'a return. Her husband, having mentioned thz3 in a vexed manner, she said : " Good hesvene I It was the bottle of spirit for the lamp I' 1 Sir AstleyCoopsr, the great Burgeon (who in 1815 rsceived during the various raontha of the year £21 000 in 'fees), and who, slaving at hia profession fcwtlve bouc3 dsily, said ha oould digest anything but " sawdust," drank two tumblers of water at dinner and two glasses— never exceeding them— cf port wine afterward. Talleyrand's cold and dissimulating nature waa summed op in hia advice to hia subordinates, " Above all, no zeal I" His favorite potation waa clarefe ia moderate glasses. Henri Qjatra, France's favorite monarch, whoso chivalrous viamoij e?en the fibres repubMaau mobs of 1702 at firat respected, loved the wined of Sarennss, and never, aa a rule, drank anythiag else. Byron waa fond of two very different potations, which. pe?hsps, one might fanoifullj «ay were typical of hia 6s?o etjlea cf poeuy— one was hock cml soda water, thea a vary new bsverage in Engteni. tbe- other waa giu and water. Frederick the Great, lika a good many other persona, bad a particular affection for Tokay. Peter the Great thought Madeira the bss» of vsinea, but regarded brandy as superior tc all ether drink. Rabena had the strange taate to esteem Marsala the finest of wines.