THE HEAT AND HEBE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2624, 5 October 1909, Page 5

THE HEAT AND HEBE.

SOME SUMMER SUGGESTIONS. (By “Hauppy.”) “In ihe heat a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of drink,” as Tennyson should have said, but didn’t. And in the beat such fancy is surely excusable, for then no one con be accused of drinking for drink’s sake, as quenching the thirst is one of the best and pleasantest methods of reducing the torrid terrors of a tropic day, to the equable temperature of an Arcadian summer-liouse. The hottest Turkish bath is made comfortable by constant cold drinks. Liquid refreshment makes hot weather not only bearablo. but delightful, and the heat returns the compliment by lending dignity and delectability to the liumblest of the humble beverages that remain to man since the recipe for the Nectar of old Olympus was lost.

I often wonder what wonderful concoction was that liquid delicacy that inspired the souls of the Muses and the lovers of Jupiter and Venus. At times my fanciful taste dreams of a subtle blend of Punch Itomaine, and Yellow Charteuse, with the refreshing qualities of a Maltese water-ice, the appetising properties of an olive, and some divine flavor that is beyond ail human imagination. A hundred years hence, perhaps, I shall sit drinking mead with the Beresark Broomfield, D’Ariagnan, and Jim Ryan in the halls of Valhalla, and when the mead palls we will saddleup and ride with the Valkyries t-o sunny Grece to lounge with the gods while Hebe and Ganymede vie with each other in passing round the nectar. But for to-day we must content ourselves with mundane delights, and now that Gisborne is beginning to shimmer with a heat that will soon be trojncal, it is fitting that recipes for those should gladden the thirsty souls of all who live and labor under the scorching gaze of Phoebus. The theology of Greece has left its influence even to these unappreciative times, however, and a choice cooler—one of London s latest is known as a tinted Venus. Venus is an old friend, and dry gin and stone ginger beer suffice for tins part of the programme. To supply the tint, however, a liqueur glass of Maraschino must be added, or if this is not available, as is probably the case in Giv borne, brown Curacoa and a go up eon of Angostura bitters will serve one’s purpose. Drop a shred of lemon in the froth that tops the drink, and take it sparkling—then though the mercury stand at a hundred you are as a god refreshed. But even the best of cocktails are not equal to a summer thirst if the summer is a long one. and for a lesson in this weighty matter one must turn to the. golden" East. Refreshment in India is a fine art from the architecture and the punkahs, to the scented cous-coas, and the whisky peg. The Anglo-Indian is an epicure, and when the sun rolls down like a red-hot ball behind the Hooghly into the crimson flaming chasms "of the sky, and the Mussulman, kneels to pray to Allah, the Sahib turns to another deity—his whisky and soda. And by whiskv and soda the coarse half-and-half mixture generally drunk in England and the colonies is by no means intended. Take a long glass and a two-finger peg. and in it pour a full pint of sparkling sodawater. A lump of ice large enough to chill the drink till the moisture condenses on the outside of the glass will add a tang that brings out all the subtle flavors of the snirit. and you have a : thirst-quencher that makes the hottest day worth living. “Full many a man, both young and old, Has gone to his sarcophagus Through pouring water, icy cold_ A-down his hot aesophagus. Jingled an irreverent rhymer who had probably been reading patent medicine advertisements. Thousands of iced drinks are swallowed every year however, t without doing any more harm than mintj sauce, even though they be the sweetly acid decoctions that bear the name of temperance beverages. And, moreover, ice is required to bring out the flavor of a peg, for you must not mix your whiskv too strong if you wish to keep pace with an Indian thirst and live long in calorific climes. Good lager beer, too, is a commendable brew in a place like Gisborne, though conducive to "liver” in the tropics. Here, unfortunately, one cannot get lager like the Germans thrive on. and though in Australia one firm brews an excellent imitation, New Zealand has no lager of her own. There is another weapon to be employed in defying the heat, or ratiier there is impedimenta to be discarded, and what to wear and what not to wear is almost as important as what to drink and what not to drink. Constant drinks of cold water will make a Turkish bath comfortable, as I said before, but a tweed suit would spoil tilings altogether. For summer wear nothing can beat white duck trousers and a silk or crash coat like one wears in India, though here, of course, you cannot get your washing done for six rupees a month, which is all you pay in the East. The necessity of wearing wool next to the skin is" a that the tropics disprove. One must Be careful of chills, that’s all. The heat is pleasant enough if one knows how to take it properly. To row lazilv r - the river and glide into some quiet backwater where one can wile awav an afternoon with a book, or a girl" and perchance a brown stone jar is entirely a pleasure of the summer. And what can beat a gallo- on a firm beach in the cool of early morning, with the sea-wind fanning in one’s face, and the sun peeping over the hills and turning the cold gray sky to pink and gold? Picnics in the bush, tennis, launch parties. and quiet walks when dusk has fallen are all good things that the warm weather brings ns. It may scorch us at times, but still there is the long glass, with the bubbles chasing upwards through the thin gold fluid, .and the music of the ice tinkling against the sides. Yes. the heat surely has its compensations!