For a long time the Germans held aloof from {178} 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, Military Port, Äpfel-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_; {179} which by the various preparations of the cook are become a part of our table entertainment almost throughout the year, and are esteem’d to be very temperate and nourishing. “They relax the belly, which is a very good property in them; but the sweet more than the sharp. They help concoction, eaten after meat, with a little bread: you may be confident that an apple eaten after supper”—paste this in your hats, ye revellers—“depresseth all offensive vapours that otherwise would offend the head, and hinder sleep. Apples rosted, scalded, or otherwise prepared, according to the skill of the operatour, are good in many hot diseases, against _Melancholy_, and the _Pleurisie_. “But _Cider_ is much to be preferr’d, it being the more pure and active part separated from the impure and feculent; and without all, peradventure, is the most wholesome drink that is made in Europe for our ordinary use, as before is observed. For its specifick vertues, there is not any drink more effectual against the _Scurvy_. It is also prevalent against the _Stone_, and by its mundifying qualities is good against the diseases of the _Spleen_, and is esteem’d excellent against _Melancholy_.”