Absinthe (The Green Fairy ) is cheerfully advertised via this vintage postcard collection. The sumptuous liquor was banned in part due to pressures from the wine industry. Vineyards had been destroyed by a pesky sap sucking aphid like pest which attacked grapevine roots.
The wine shortages of 1880 and 1890 had turned the average Frenchman into a loyal absinthe drinker. Wine was simply unaffordable. By 1910 the French were consuming 36 million liters of absinthe per year, more than they drank wine.
The wine industry certainly had to put a stop to that. With quite a chunk of propaganda, Absinthe quickly became associated with violent crimes and social disorder. It was tabu!
One critic said,’ Absinthe makes you crazy and criminal, provokes epilepsy and tuberculosis, and has killed thousands of French people. It makes a ferocious beast of man, a martyr of woman, and a degenerate of the infant, it disorganizes and ruins the family and menaces the future of the country.
Absinthe dangers have been found to be untruthful. Those naughty winemakers! It is only treacherous when when imbibes too much of this 75 proof green colored spirit!
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