“It is my opinion, based on numerous cases that have come under my professional observation, that delirium tremens and other maladies to which inebriates are subject are caused chiefly by the use of _distilled liquors_. Therefore the manufacture and sale of beer should be encouraged. It should be free from taxation in order that it may be placed within the reach of all at a low price and thoroughly take the place of ardent spirits.” The editor of the Chicago _Tribune_, writing from Germany, says: “Drunkenness is so rare and infrequent that it may be said not to exist. I have traveled thousands of miles through Germany, in various directions, visiting nearly all the chief cities, and have made diligent inquiry of American consuls and other well-informed persons, and received but one answer everywhere, _viz._, no drunkenness among the Germans; public sentiment would not tolerate it; the habits of the country are all against it. And what is the reason of this freedom from inebriation? It is the total absence of whisky and the substitution of lager beer.” [Illustration: WILLIAM PENN’S HOUSE AND BREWERY IN PENNSBURY, BUCKS COUNTY, PA. (See page 26.)] Mr. Y. G. Hurd wrote to Mr. Bowditch in reference to the beer question and after referring to the records of the Essex police court and alluding to intemperance caused by ardent spirits, continued as follows: “Of all our commitments 60 per cent. are directly traceable to drunkenness. Is the enforcement of a prohibitory or any other law alone to rid us of the monster? Were there only the pecuniary interest of the liquor traffic to meet, powerful as it is, the result would not, be doubtful. But there are climatic influences, the universal desire for stimulants, the education of our civilization for some centuries, social customs and hereditary tendencies, all tending in a greater or less degree to perpetuate the evil. * * * * * A visit to Chicago and my observation there of the habits of the German population, first brought to my mind doubts that total abstinence will ever be an accomplished fact. I visited the beer gardens on Sunday to see how the Germans spend the day. There was a band of music, a dance floor, rude seats and tables like our New England picnics, in a beautiful grove, and lager in such quantities as I had never conceived. Everybody, old and young, drank and seemed to continue to drink during the afternoon. But lager was the only beverage. No liquors, no drunkenness and no fights or disorderly conduct. The young men and maidens were merry and danced, the elder drank and talked with the gravity and dignity becoming to respectable German citizens; the children sipped their glass of lager and gamboled on the grass, and all went home apparently sober, to resume without doubt, their usual avocations on the morrow. There were probably two thousand persons taking their weekly recreation, and this was only one of half a dozen similar places about the suburbs of the city.