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WHISKEY.
Uisge-beatha
—
"My
Stint"
—
Its
Manufacture
—
Good
and
Bad
—
Early
Mentions
of
Whiskey
—
Materials
used
in
its
Manufacture
—
St.
Thorwald
—
Duncan
Forbes
and
Ferrintosh
—
Duty
on
Whiskey—
Silent
Spirit
—
Artificial
Maturing.
NO
matter
in
what
country,
wherever
it
was
known,
alcohol
has
been
hailed
as
the
Water
of
Life,
even
in
the
Gaelic.
Uisge-beatha,
or,
as
we
term
it,
whiskey,
bears
literally
that
interpretation.
This
is
"the
wine
of
the
country,"
both
in
Ireland
and
Scotland,
and
the
quantities
drank,
without
any
apparently
hurtful
effect,
is
astonishing
to
a
southern
Englishman.
Northwards,
on
the
border
land,
it
is
a
question
whether
more
whiskey
is
not
drunk,
pro
rata,
than
in
Scotland.
Still,
even
there,
every
one
is
not
gifted,
as
was
the
Irishman
spoken
of
by
John
Wilson
Croker.
He
tells
the
story
of
a
lawsuit,
in
which
a
life
insurance
com-
pany
disputed
a
claim,
on
the
ground
that
the
death
was
caused
by
excessive
drinking.
One
witness
for
the
plaintiff
was
called,
who
deposed
that,
for
the
last
eighteen
years
of
his
life,
he
had
been
in
the
nightly
habit
of
imbibing
twenty
-fozir
tumblers
of
whiskey
punch.
The
cross-examining
counsel
wished
to
know