Their beloved beer could not be traced so directly to an origin in the
nether world. The German tribes, as far back as history or tradition
reports them, seem to have loved this quieting beverage. Traces of their
coming together as now for banqueting purposes, under the shade of
Germany's primeval forests, are still found in history and historical
traditions. There is one fact which Americans, so accustomed to rapid
transformations of society by migration, immigration, and intermixture
of races, can scarcely comprehend, even when they know it as a fact: it
is the persistency with which national traits adhere to a people in an
old country, through generations and decades of generations and of
centuries, withstanding the shock of revolution both in government and
religion. Tacitus says of these people:--"At meals, they sit every man
upon a seat by himself and at a separate table. Arising, they proceed
armed to their business; and they go armed also to their banquets. _It
is no reproach to them to continue day and night drinking. Their drink
is fermented from barley or wheat into a certain resemblance of wine_.
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