Weird Tract Number 50: "RATS IN THE BEER VATS" by Osterhus Publishing House (SPRING BREAK SPECIAL)

Troy Davis writes:

Osterhus Publishing House has been around since 1901 (history of the company is here). The oldie-but-goodie RATS IN THE BEER VATS is taken from a talk by H. Phelps Gates. Gates bemoans the lack of quality control and squalid sanitary conditions at American breweries in the early to mid-20th century. He has gross-out details of rats drowning in the beer vats and callous brewers not doing anything about it. Gates includes an excerpt from a letter from an alleged brewery worker:
     
 I was once a brewery worker in Iowa.  All of the water used in the manufacture of beer came from an overflow pool in a pasture, used alike by horses, cows, and hogs. To my amazement, on the first day, I discovered the malt to be full of maggots and I asked the brewer what to do. "Never mind,"  he replied, "Scoop it in. That won't hurt."

The tract ends by warning the reader that to avoid serving the devil because that will lead to an eternity of  "weeping and gnashing of teeth."

SPRING BREAK TWOFER SPECIAL: Another temperance tract from Osterhus
A Drunkard's Reward for Drinking Alcohol is a one-page, one-sided flyer. 

The Museum of Weird and Demented Religious Tracts is a project of Les Zazous Postmodern Art Galley of Bellaire, Ohio. Read the Welcome Statement of The Museum here.

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