In the middle 19th century, Vermonters occasionally wondered whether their cherished Green Mountains might not disappear beneath a new deluge of alcoholic spirits. Vermont Hero Ethan Allen and his hardy band had stormed Fort Ticonderoga smelling of rum; then more and more Green Mountain men were descending "The Fatal Ladder," (see cut) whose first step down was a social swig of hard cider. "Everybody asked everybody to drink," remarked an 1830 observer. "There were drunken lawyers, drunken doctors, drunken members of Congress, drunken ministers." Today, recovered from rum and soberly situated in the middle 20th century, Vermont has begun...
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