The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1856-04-23

THE Po1soss SOMETIMES EAfEN.-The Lon
don Quarterly Review has curious article in
its April number, on the adulteratlons in food
\ in the British metropolis. If similar practices
are in vogue in great cities on this side OF the
4 Atlantic, people in our days not only eat the
.peck Of dirt assigned to them by the old pro-
verb, but no small quantity of poison also.
4 1t seems there is hardly an edible sold IN
London which, not adulterated in greater or
less degree. The vinegar is watered, made
pungent with sulphuric acid; the tea is mixed
with Prussian blue and gypsum; the coffee is
more than half chicory; the chicory is partly
eharred and ground bullocks' lvers; the mus
tard is half flour, colored with tumeric; the pep
! per is debased with linseed cake or clay; the
sausages are often diseased meat chopped up;
the curry powder is favored withred lead; and
bread is poisoned with alum, sometimes by the
miller aduterating the -four, but oftener by the
baker. Wealth furnishes no protection against
these frauds The richest suffer as much as
the poor, and sometimes, as when they drink
i fine teas, even more.
But the most deleterious adulterations occur
/ in pickles, candles and preserved fruits. A
scientific gentleman, when about to eat some
preserved gooseberries, discovered that the
4 prongs Of his steel fork were coated With film
Of bright metallic copper. Verdigrisin dan
gerous quantities had been employed by the
manufacturer Of she preserves; and had silver
fork been employed, or the gentleman been ig-
norant of science, q serious illness might have
been the consequence, if not death. Another
lperson observing that he always had tit OF
colo after eating cheese at a certain inn, nsti-
tuted an inquiry and discovered that the cheese
maker had usea yermillion to cover his COM
modify, and that the druggist who sold the YER
million had adulterated thelatter with red lead.
These lead poisons are employed very largely
in the fabrication of candies, and as lead is a
cumulative poison, each new indulgence adds
to the injury. French olives, and all the Eng
i lish pickles, are adulterated with poisons quite
as virulent. = a##
;. It is impossible to say to what extent these
). frauds are carried on in the United States
We have no doubt that food is adulterated in
all our great cities; though not, perhaps. to SO
!, serious an extent as in London. Will not some
!, person of science and leisure initiate the exam
pie of Dr.. Hassal, the gentleman who detect
ed these knaveries in England, and test sam
pies of various kinds of food, by the employ
ment Of the microscope, and of chemical tests?
philadelphia Ledger.
Lord Hardwich, the late lord chancellor, who
is said TO be worth f800,o00, sets the same
value on half a crown now as he did when he
; was worth only f1O0. That great captain.
; the duke of Marlborough, when he was in the
: last stage Of life, and very infrm, would walk
from the public room in Bath to his lodgings.
on a cold dark night, to save sixpence in chair
hire. If the duke, who left at his death more
than millio4 and half sterling, could have
\ foreseen that all his wealth and honors were to
be inherited' by grandson Of lord Trevor,
} who had been one of his enemies, would he
have been SO careful to save a sixpence for the
sake of his sheir? Not for the sake Of his heir.
but he would have always saved sxpence.
Sir James Lowther, after changing piece
of silver in Georges coffee house, and paying
two pence for his dish Of coffee, was helped
into his chariot (for he was lame and in6rm)
and went home; sometime after, he returned
to the same coffee house on purpose to acquant
the woman who kept it that she had given him
a bad half-penny, and demanded another in
exchange for il. Sir James had about forty
thousand pounds per annum, and was at loss
! whom to appoint his heir. | know one sir T.
Colby, who lived in Kensington, and was,
think, commissioner in the victualing office;
be killed himself by rising in the middle of the
the effect of medicine which he had taken
for that purpose, and walking down stairs to
look for the key of his cellar, which he had in
advertently left on table in his parlor; he was
apprehensive that his servants might seize the
key and rob him of a bottle of port wine. This
man died intestate, and left, f1 200, 900 in the
funds, which were shared among FIVE or six
day laborers,, who were his nearest relations.
Sir WilliaIn Smythe, of Bedfordshire, who
was my own kinsman, when he was near 10,
he was wholly deprived of his sight; he was
persuaded to be couched by Taylor, the ocu-
list. who, by agreement, was to have sixty
guineas if he restored his patient to any degree
of sight Taylor succeeded in his operation,
and sir William was able to read and write
without the use of spectacles during the rest of
| his life; but rs as the operation was per-
formed, andIr William saw the good effect Of
| it, instead If being overjoyed as any other
person would have been, he began to lament
the loss (as he called it) of his sixty guineas.
His contriyance, therefore, was how to cheat
the oculist ); he pretended that he had only a
| glimmering and could not see any thing per-
fectly; for that reason the bandage on his eyes
was continued a month longer than the usual
time. By this means he obliged Taylor to COM
pound the bargain, and accept of 90 gaineas;
for coyetous man thinks no method dishonest
which he may legally practice to save money.
DR.. Kings Anecdotes
=4 EST. q
The editor of the Boston Intelgencer was
passing the corner of Boston and Walnut streets
when occurred the following mournful and das-
tardly circumstance, with a well known mil
!ionaire: We saw little boy, some ten or a
dozen years Of age, seated upon the door
steps, just at nightfall, chewing hard crust Of
bread which he had begged in the neighbor-
hood. In the midst Of his meal, grey y-hair-
ed man came from the house and kicked the
boy, baskel and all into the street with an oath
that went tp our heart, and made us shudder
as it rung en- the air. The little fellow wept
bitterly as he stood in the midst of the crusts
of bread and other refuse from the table Of
the more fortunate, and as he knelt to gather the
scattered luxuries of the beggar's lot, we in
wardly invoked hearty maledicton upon the
grey haired ruffian, in whose soul old age had