A Dog That Drinks Beer
They have a dog out at Bergner & Engel’s that drinks beer. “He drinks much more as you do,” said one of the attaches of the brewery, a tall muscular German, slightly out of “form” by the use of the beverage of the Fatherland. The dog, a Danish hound, was lying in front of his kennel, to which he was secured by a heavy chain, his nose close to the ground, his eyes closed, save now and then, when he opened them lazily as wagons piled with empty kegs came into the yard and dumped their loads into an already immense pile of empty packages. Felix, the dog, is described as a “bad’un.” He is kept chained during the day, but is allowed to roam around the yard at night to make acquaintance with intruders. He spends his freedom in sniffing around the kegs and vats, seeking beer. In the morning before being chained he is given some beer, which he laps up with relish and says “Ah!” The men say he will drink a half bucket of the liquor a day; that is, in summer. In cold weather he will take a great deal more, seeming to be aware that there is heat in the malt. Felix was imported from Vienna, and probably contracted a taste for beer before leaving home. However that may be, he is a confirmed beer-drinker now.
“Do any of the horses drink beer?” was asked of the tall German spoken of.
“Oh! yah; dot’s what makes brewer’ horses so fat. We got a big pipe running over to der stable, and we keep dem full up.”
“But your hostlers say they never saw a horse drink beer.”
“Oh! vell, dey don’t give’em a chance, dot’s all. Dey want der beer for demselves,” and then the speaker told of how they gave post horses wine in Austria when there is not time to stop for dinner. He said they take a large basin, filled with wine, into which they put slices of rye bread. This, he said, the horses ate with gusto and went off with great speed and required no food until evening.
-as reported in Parsons Weekly Sun, 1897
No comments:
Post a Comment