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1 Iff AR S beea declarefl a Sainst \ V / tne sovernment of Germany VV by more than 100,000 of its fijost loyal and devoted sub jects in Bavaria. The conflict is to be a peaceful one, and not a shot will be fired, nor: a drop of Teuton blood shed. Most curious of all is the cause of the tattle that is on. It's all concerning the price of a glass 'of dark beer. : While sympathizers with the war ring ones are to be found all over the kaiser's empire, the hotbed of the in surrectionists is in Munich, Bavaria. Some time':. ago the proprietors of the big breweries in that city decided that because of the increased cost of production it was necessary to raise the price of; their product Accordingly the retailers were given sotice that' more money; would be re quired and advised to raise the price to the consumer three pfennigs a glass. . Then was raised -an Immediate, storm and since has been a continual struggle, a three cornered fight- be tween breweries, people and govern ment The people: insist that . there shall be no raise, and want the. gov-~ ernment to interfere. , The national treasury gains much revenue" fronv Its ' retail beer • licenses ; in- Bavaria, and it Is thpught by : many that the people i will conquer. . When "Muenchner" beer went up three-quarters of a cent aglass there was an outcrj^, throughout the'German nation. It^was a common sight in Berlin to see long whiskered, studious looking k men draw a tape line from their pock- ' ets and measure the . distance : from- the h JUST FANCY! bottom .of the "collar." >the -foaro, to the bottom of the glass. For with true German thoughtful ness. they had /fig ured" out that if. they were cheated out of a quarter of an x inch. of beer, on tho half :lltre,. they would -.lose-^-in case of heavy drinkers— almost a whole glass i ful of it in" one 'evening.' And 'they, we re not r going to . stand {for it. Bßutt t that •' did not last' long, in fact, only a week jor two. Befliriers are too much Amerr '\u25a0'\u25a0'[ lean for that \ sort .of business. 1 ' They ; »oon saw , the humorous side' of ..the si t : uation^-and that /settled it. :> : ' : . ' Different atMunich. . : The Berliner is . nowadays almost as big a consumer of \u25a0 • winejas heis of beer. In-MunichV on ; the ; other .= hand, beer is . more "than trump. - It is a question of vital; inter- .; est- It isaquestion'of the utmost im-; /Portance^superseding'rellgion, politics}; ' everything. tl ln* Munich : we! may .safely ! ; referjto"; the hops;fandrmaltsyas>'Hls'i . \majesty, vthe . Beer."ri'Every ', Bavarian ; man, .woman^and child fednsumes at ah I 3ayera«e^s?litres^hat;i^Abou^^s6oi .Jpints-^of beer -' a • year ! *VAndt the^'prl ce \of beer, has been^^ raised^tiree'-quajters: ":of a : cent— 3 pfennigs— tlie'Vlialf' litre . " And the Bavariatia were not "going to stand for it. They protested."" Oh, how they protested! Mass meetings! Pub lic indignation meetings! Protest meetings against their .representatives in congress, against the government . The people so attacked— the brew ers, the government, the law makers — smiled. , They, thought they knew their . "Muenchners." :,They 'would curser.but —they would drink. And if they would drink they would have to pay. That it could enter, the. mind of .a true * Ba varian' to stop drinking beer seemed out " of ; the question, i Munich , without dark beer?. Perish the thought!" "And; : then "the. unexpected happened. The. Bavarian declared not only \the beer .boycott, but a beer 'war. .It's on yet! -; This beer ' war is '. probably ; the ' thing that ever happened in. the of Munich, yes,, of. Ba- . varia.: How the people carry ,';lt on is" amystery to all.who know them. But they do. / Somehow .they stick it out. And . so) serious has) the movement be- ; come .'.that - the .Bavarian • government ' ; has I Justjissuedr^ confidentially "and re- : peatedly; an order to all her.represen tatives. to' try' to suppress; theypublic i expressions *6f <sympathyTwYtir : the boy- ' cott, •to Hry -to nuzzle \u25a0 the press : in ; i The San Francisco Sunday uau this respect, and to prevent all public meetings on the subject. So the thing must be serious. What it all means only will he fully understand who has ever.visited beautiful old Munich, has gone, to the Brauhaus, has seen the thousands with their "steins" of beer in front of them, "steins" containing oveV a pint of the dark fluid. They are there, at all times of the day, morn- Ing, "noon and night; and. like never ending procession, they are steadily on the move to fill their steins at tho tap personally instead of haying them served, and so save three-fourths of a cent 1 on each stein. \u25a0 ' To the American mind this will seem small. Three-quarters of a cent! Not a.full cent! Ridiculous! But it's less than three-quarters of a cent tho Muenchner is fighting for. It's the tra dition. Father paid it, grandfather paid it! By Jove, «ye shall not pay more. It's just as serious, in intent and pur pose, as when the English cried: "And the Russians shall not have Constanti nople." The incidents of this odd w«f ; which; to . any one but a Bavarian, wculd furnish material for half a dozen comic operas, are. legion. Here are Just a few : in Eichstadt the inhabi tants'have signed a pledge never to touch any beer at all any more; that is to say, abstain' from beer other than that of Munich also, until the govern ment has given way. ' Bavarians tenv perance people! Anything may happen after that. In Tann 200 young people had to place themselves at the dis posal of the military service. Such a N day ends, since time immemorial, in a great .drinking bout.' Well, they \u25a0 just tried the water of the.market place. It did not taste good to them. Finally they, bought a 'cask of beer wholesale, and figured it out that In such a way they .'were paying the old normal price per glass. They -opened the cask In the market place ; the "burghers", gave * them the lean of glassesl In Munich one can read such posters as the following : "Beer is our nation al drink.' No one has a right to touch thi s, our most holy possession ! " "Tha beer .that : no one drinks - has missed Its Vocation" is an old Munich proverb. There is a lot of that sor*>.» BaVaria at present :'• ' . '