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GLORIOUS BEER
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springing up all over the country, and those who
purchase shares in them receive, for the most
part, substantial dividends.
"Beer and the
Bible " have won more elections than any other
combination ; the organization of the brewers
has hitherto proved powerful enough to withstand
all the slings and arrows of the Prohibition party,
whilst there has been an enormous increase in
the value of houses licensed to sell fermented
refreshment; and the name of Bass will "live
on," like Claudian, " through the centuries."
There be more than one description of beer
put before the public. I forget at this moment
who was responsible for the " swipes" of my
school days, which tasted like red ink—and I have
sampled both—but I have always believed that
the manufacturer—I do not believe him to have
been a brewer at all—had a special spite against
the rising generation, which he wished to die a
lingering death.
The "ninepenny" quaffed
beneath the holy shade of Henry was good,
sound, wholesome tipple ; but I fancy an inferior
brand was poured forth to us at "half time" in
the football field. Since those days I have tasted
pretty nearly all sorts and conditions of beer,
from the "Number One" Bass drawn fi'om the
wood in pewter pots, in a little hostelry just off
the Waterloo Road—the very best according to
my taste—to the awful stuff tasted, and only
tasted, one Sunday in a charmingly rural-looking
little inn, with a thatched roof—a licensed house
which apparently laid itself out to entrap the
daring and enterprising " bona fide traveller," and
whose malt liquor was apparently composed for