Note 50 — POEMS OF PHILIP FRENEAU
Reading edition
Published in the National Gazette for January 23, 1792, introduced by a short essay upon country taverns. The following is an extract:
"Happy would it be for every community if ardent spirits could be banished from amongst them.... I shall conclude these observations with some lines written last winter at a country tavern, where from the introduction of a single jug of rum, conviviality and good humour were changed into madness and brutality, and numbers of the guests, who came, perhaps, only to pass a social hour, went away maimed, muttering, and lastingly embittered against each other." The poem appeared in the edition of 1795 with the title "The Jug of Rum." Text from the edition of 1809.