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178
THE FLOWING BOWL
the manufacture of cider. The good Rhine
wine, and the flowing and flatulent lager of their
own country, were good enough for the Teutonic
palate. But when it comes to a question of
making money, with the risk reduced to a
minimum, Germany seldom "gets left," as
the Yankees say. Some of the inhabitants of
the Fatherland discovered, about two decades
ago, that there was gelt in cider, and since that
time apples have been imported from France, by
train-loads, for the purpose of being converted
into cider. Germany now exports nearly twelve
times as much of this fascinating beverage as
does France ; and under whatever name it may
figure in the bills—German Champagne, Mili
tary Port, Apfel-wein, or Sparkling Hock—away
goes the apple juice to all parts of the civilized
world, including Damascus, Pekin, Khartoum,
San Francisco, and Shaftesbury Avenue.
In
Frankfort-on-the-Maine alone there are more
than fifty cider-factories, and the industry brings
the town at least half a million sterling per annum.
"The fruits of the earth," says the ancient
chronicler quoted above, " and especially of trees,
were the first food ordained for man to eat."
And yet I had always understood that it was
for eating an apple that our first parents were
evicted from the garden. But to continue the
quotation.
" And by eating of which (before flesh became
his meat) he lived to a far greater age than since
any have been observed to have lived. And of all
the fruits our Northern parts produce, there's none
more edible, nor more wholesome than Apples;