A friend and ex-student who supplements his salary by buying and
selling postcards has lived in Germany for the past five years.
Yesterday he sent me a copy of a short popular article which he
published about "wine cards," mostly from small vintners in western
Germany.  This reminds me about the question of such ephemera from
the drink trade and the temperance movement: do such things matter?
If so, why?  To they tell us about the audience?  the producer?
 
Some years ago I turned on the local public radio station to find a
performance by a University of Illinois singing group which followed
the 19th cent musical notation called the "sacred harp" (after an
early songbook).  Several songs were temperance tunes (I recall
"Bibles and beer," a denunciation of United States imperialism in the
Pacific islands).  There also was a temperance opera.
David M. Fahey
History Department
Miami University
Oxford, OH 45056-1618, USA
tel. 513-529-5134
FAX 513-529-3841
e-mail: <[log in to unmask]>