Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1857-05-20
Poisoned Liquors

Ane DesG OF CnemlStS have long ago Qeel-
ded that alcoholic beverages are a sloae
poison, and the experience of every observer
has been, that their free use has resulted in
the ruin and death of those who persiSad in
their indulgence. But the manufacturers of
the present day are not content with the
slow, but the steady and sure murders In
which they have been engaged, but must pre-
pare a decotion much more rapid in Its death
agency, and that cannot fail in its
dire consequences. The wines and liquors
of the present day are nothing less than a
quick, ~Virulent poison-a fact 80 notorious
that every where the voice of warning and
Reproduction is raised against the.
On our first page is an article from Por-
ter's Spirit Of the Times, published in New
York-a paper that cannot be suspected with
the least Partially to the temperance reform
which d~iscloses the startling fact, beyond
any doubt or equiVocation, that the purcha-
sers of costly wines and liquors are paying
extravagant prices for the extracts of the
most v~irulent and deadly poisons, in which
there is not the slightest admixture of the
juice of the fruits from which the wines and
brandies of former times were made.
We find IL stated, Also, in an Ohio paper,
that the 'hog disease which has proved so
fatal in the West. is caused by the animals
eating the grain from which whisky is made.
after it has been used at the distilleries. A
chemist who lately analysed a barrel of Ohio
whisky, gave his opinion that there was
strychnine enough to kill thirty men in that
one barrel.
And we extract the subjoined from the
Editorial columns of the Fayetteville Obser-
yer; a paper whose sentiments are ALWAYS on
the side of good morals, but yet not an advo-
cate of total abstinence which fact we men
ton, only to show that temperance papers
are not the only ones that are bringing this
matter before the public. The Observers arti-
Gle is as follows:
TO LIQUOR DRINKERs.-It seems to us that
people who do not wish to commit suicide,
VIII nave to give up drinking. The manu-
iacturers OF beth ardent spirits and wines
WI oO DIS To make what DaS-
SEES 1or the most expensive brands out of
cheap chemical poisons and SO un-serunuIous
as to palm them off upon their customers,
utterly regardless of the destruction O fhealth
and life which follow their use. Thew he.
come a sort of slow National Hotel poison"
a lew days ago we saw it stated that a phy-
slclan OF Cincinnati declared that of the
wines and liquors sold in that city next to
none were genuine, and that some of them
were so poisonous that they would eat a hole
IN a mans yltals in a week. LESS time re-
CURED to eat one into his pocket.) And now
we see that many fish have been killed in
the Sclota river, near Chillicothe. Ohio, bv
the drainage of the whiskey distilleries. ow-
ing to the recent Introduction of strycbnine
into the manufacture of whiskey. By the
use OF a certain quantity of this poison. mix-
ca with tobacco juice, every bushel of grain
Is made to produce five gallons of whiskev
W.hlle with an honest distillation the nrodnct
Is one half that amount.
Ii we could think that liquor drinkers were
as careful and cautious with reoord 70 +h;s
beverage. as they are with tha;r a;A4A-lL-
""'eF 'ney drink, we might indulge the hone
'ia' 'ne manufacturers had hit upon a plan
INA Would more effectually advance the
cause OF total abstinence, than any means
which temperance men have ever heon obi
10 oeVlse' If a market man were known to
SeIl poisoned meats to his customers. know;pc
OF oeiieVeing it to be poisoned. not onl1
would they discontinue their trade With -
put ne would be cast into prison and 49,
narshest seventies of the law dealt ont -
nm go "
nin' II a well were known to be noisonod
VINO so fool-hardy and reckless as to cont;n,a
Cne use OF It's waters. The hotel no;son -
washington, from which some faw nu.o--
nave died. and a number been sickened and
eN'u' caused a general feeling of ihorror
from one end of the country to the other
Ihe immense number of its inmate
~ IN terror as from a deadly pestileuce, and
hhoeei was soon vacant and closed.
Du' mere is a deadly poison-knovn and
auinitted to be such-a poison that has nro7-
eu 1atal to the human, bruteand fish o,oat;.
u Is freely circulated throughout the ent;ra
country No species of this drink are exanont
from It, The high priced and the low nr;oad
-ior the aristocratic wine-bibber md 49,
and die! Uney orink
on 1u' we would fain hope, that SO clarinr
@no positive are the proofs against H.. II
-"lnooSiy poisoned compound. that mon 81,
t tbiu'e w'lltolly to commit suicide by its fur.
EES 1no IalI of TooLco-
,m1enOut a prisoner, and the second stor -, Is
in wb ieh'eo oy a daguerreotypist as a Rooms nnS
Bait. Clipper.
we mad heard that our friend Copeland
was In limbo, IN jackson, but did not tno~
ne was SO prOftabiy employed while in -"
rance vile" We are glad 10 learn b.
with a good harvest on his recent visit ~ ~
former place of residence. The trntb i 10
CoLORTYPEs are the finest snao;o H'