Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 143, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 June 1916 — DEADLY DRINKS OF MEXICANS [ARTICLE]

DEADLY DRINKS OF MEXICANS

Too Free Indulgence In Pulque and Mescal Given as Cause for Many of Border Outrages. Although Francisco Villa himself ls~sald to be a total abstainer from intoxicatlng liquors, many of the Mexican border outrages perpetrated by his men followed a too free indulgence in the Mexican national drinks, pulque and mescal. The National Geographic society of Washington, in a primer issued on these two beverages peculiar to the southern republic, says: “The colonists who settled on the east coast of the United States have been charged with introducing the American Indian to ‘fire-water’ in ex-

change for the tobacco habit, but no similar accusation can rest against the Europeans who conquered the pulquedrinking Aztecs of Mexico. The intoxicating properties of this unique beverage were known long before Cortez marched his army across the causeways which joined the ancient Venicelike capital of the Montezuma to the lake shores. “Both pulque and mescal are products of the agave or ‘century plant,’ which was of the same utilitarian importance to the aborigines as the date palm to the Arab, the bamboo to the Burmese, and the banana to the Central American. In addition to the two important beverages, this plant supplies from its roots a starchy food; from its fibrous leaves cloth is woven and rope is made; from its pulp the Aztecs obtained a sort of papyrus paper on which have been preserved some of thei/ most valued writings; its huge leaves when dried furnished a roofing for adobe huts; its stems still supply fuel, and rows of the sharpspined plants afforded an impenetrable defense against the attacks of wild animals as well as an effective barricade against hostile tribes. “Mescal and pulque are not, as many believe, different names for the same drink. Mescal is distilled from the leaves and roasted roots of the plant, and is a sort of brandy, containing from a third to half as much alcohol as the average American whisky. Pulque, on the ether hand, is the fermented sap of the plant, and is obtained from the heart of the maguey, ■ - ' .. ,• -

or agave, when it has attained a growth of six or eight years. The pulque harvester taps this heart, which might be compared with the center of the date palm, and with the aid of a long reed or gourd he sucks the sap from it, using his tongue as a stopper for the reed. When the reed is full he blows it into a pigskin container strapped to his back. In the course of four or five months the maguey will yield ten gallons of sap. It then withers and dies. When fresh, pulque is a sweet, Innocuous liquid. “Neither mescal nor pulque is expensive. One can get a drink of the latter for a cent, while a 14-gallon cask of the famous tequila brand of mescal may be had for 19 pesos ($9.50). ' "The Mexicans surround the discov-, ery of these maguey beverages with a legend of royal romance. Long before the Montezumas held sway over Tenocbtltlan, so the story goes, one of the early emperors took as his bride the beautiful daughter of a vanquished foe. The princess brought with her to Tenochtitlan the secret of a remarkable drink of which her lord and master grew inordinately fond. After imbibing freely of it he would become gratifylngly docile and torpid, leaving the princess free to her own devices. Other Aztec wives induced the princess to share with them the secret of this strange soporific and thus the whole race came under the power of pulque. “The Aztec cannot be charged with the indention of the nauseous milk pulque, a compound of pulque and milk with a ‘dash’ of rennet The rennet, part of a cow’s compound stomach, is partially putrefied and the odor thus Imparted is intensified and complicated by that of the pigskin in which the liquor is contained. The alibi which defenders of the Astec can offer against the charge of being party to this olfactory crime is that before the Spaniards reached Mexico there were no cattle, horses or donkeys in the country, hence no rennet. “Pulque cannot be shipped out of the country because no method of preserving it has been discovered, so the vast output of the extensive planta- s tions—it is the most important industry of the states of Hidalgo, Mexico, Puebla and Tlaxcala—is consumed at home; Mexico consumes >4,000,000 worth of pulque annually.*"