Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1859-05-06


forcign liquors No secret is made of it.; til
fraud is committed in open daylight Whis
key and alcohol fJrm the basis Oi nunerOu
indcscribablc compounds which are bottle
and sold under the names of foreign wines
Indeed, there arc well known receipts fo
making these differ rent liquors-by which III
adroit mixer can produce an article whicl
| will sometimes deceive even a good Judge
| Whatever chemical or mineral sIbstanc s
will simulate the color and taste of wines ar
unhesitatingly employed in the fabrication
OF an article whose genuineness few mei
will stop to question. When real foreign
| wines have been imported, the casks, after
they are emptied, aud while they have still
upon them the custom house marks, are sold
ut high price to be, again filled with some
villalnous ninuiacture made in this city, ana
offered in the market rs direct from Pbrtug Il
or France! Nor is this all; counterets u
foreign casks are made, which are stuniousy
blackcned. and made to appear dlngy with
age and the effects of "a sea-voyagc viii {
knowing spiders spin old webs over ncN
bottles in dark cellars under the street Ma
ny Il clsk of wine is guiltlcss OF the blood oi
4 single grape and many II man who drinks
from it his brimming glass, swallows only ii
pleasantly disguised poison which he NIGH,
have made for himself ut less cost, by blend.
ing together the contents Of half dozen
small vias Of oils and tinctures, purchased
tor II trllc ut an apothccary shop!
Step next into II stationer's, to buy an ac-
count book. You will find it marked on the
back with Il figure in gilt, "3, ~, on
20 indicating the numder o qurcs which
it is said to contain. Now, quire Of paper
is popularity supposed to number twcnty-f1ur
sheets but a quire with covers on contains
only sixteen, or possibly eighteen. Even the
common article Of straw paper has of late
been packed in fraudulent quircs of twenty
two or twenty-threc sheets instead of twenty
four, while. if you have the misfortune to
publish IL weekly journal, you must look
sharp in buying your paper, to see if there
is not pound of clay put INTO every rcam,
which stiifens the sheets and apparently i'm
proves their quality SO long as they are dry
but which, as soon as they are wet for tile
press, is washed out and entirely disappears
Is 1t necessary to point out more ill.,
stances Take off your hat, and you will
see under the crown the glded lie that it
came from Paris ;''-whereas, it will
never have been in Paris until you wear it
there yourself. Also, you may buy and
smoke & nune Havana Cigars" which,
after careful inquiry, y,you will find to have been
man uiactured in Chatham street by jew
And did you ever purchase II b of raisns,
or II drum of figs, in which the largest
ralsins and the largest figs were not always
ON the top?
1t is sometimes even ludicrous to witness
the ingenuity which men expend in devil
sing new fraud, and in carrying it into
successful opera Ition. For example, n hake
al, ,uat,, III, ool E,l. a
persons the only difference is the fact that IL
make has two long, slender smellers project
ing from the head, while II Goldfish has none
10 sell the head body, and tail for Il cod fish.
IS IA trick which has been played thousand
times Indeed. we know OF man in Bos-
ton who has earned II comfortable living by
thus turning Il sjrt of barber in iisn
selling the fish, when thus shaved, for
genuine
1t is an old proverb that " there is cheat
ing in all trades but ouis; - but when man
now quotes it, he would do well to add for
the sake of truth, land cheating in ours
100 -
Such facts as these could be given, not on
ly by scores or hundreds, but by thousands
''N'''0 WHICH arc IIdctic'u NltHoul ihc
slightest apparent recognition OF their moral
dishonest, bu: which on the contrary, are re-
Slrded rs belonging to the mere commonplace
Ut business, and as being in nowse difficult
t. be reconcled with honesty and fair deal
ing. They are matters of course, and oc-
cur quite as naturally and fr quently with
hundreds & thousands OF men as with the old
deacon and his clerk. Have younever heard
the old story? a new England deacon, who
kept countryside thought he would make
ais clerk honest by calling him in regularly
To the morning family ucvotons; wnich he
lid usually in this wire: John, have you
watered the rum?" "Yes sir, T." replied Joi n.
= And have sanded the sugar." ''Yes sir
Then come to prayers ~
saying was once in vogue that
pounds pou
The world around;'
but we now need to give the old prJverb
new rendering AS Tor instance,
pound is an ounce short
Or soneth ns of that sort!
Now, as Martin Luther nailed h is ninety
five propositions to tho door Of the church in
Wittemberg, and challenged all men to dis
iute them, w0 wish every merchant would
nail to the door of his countng-room some
such heroic proclamations us the following,
and challenge all his partners to deny them
That the lawful length OF one foot. linear
measure, is twelve inches, and not nine, ten,
or eleven;-that gallon-pot ought to hold
four quarts, and not three and pint that
u modern bushel ought still to contain us
much as the old Winchester bushel of Eng
land, and not a pint less than four pecks;-
that Il barrel OF -four which is not fit to be
eaten ought not to be marked supcriine -
that quire of paper ought to count twenty
four sheets, and not eighteen nor twenty-five;
that paper OF cut-tlcks from Il hardware
store ought to number ten hundred instead
OF three hundred that the length of two
hundred yards ought to be quite as great
when wound with II thread around IL spool,
as when measured in the posts and rails of u
farm fence, or in the coils and braces Of u
ships rigging!
Another great reform, somewhat different
from Luther's in the XVIth century, is now
needed in the XIXth "a reform not in faith
hut in works-not in doctrinal ethics, but
in practical dealings "a reform that shall
call things by their names, and disown their
wrong;-a reform that shall enter into every
dry goods store and search along every shelf,
weigh the sewing silks pound by pound, to
"iit viz idii ichkeh ~ oh 'iS oP'Ois
and TO mark silk and worsted only half and
half, instead of calling it oil silk reform
that shall penetrate like moisture into every
hardware establishment, so as to rust out
the false stamps from every blade Of cutlery,
and TO stamp the true name only when the
metal has the true ring reform that shall
mark an honest value on every pair Of boots
in every shoemaker's shop, and dry every
side OF wet leather in the Swamp before it
goes into the scales "a reform that shall
enter among the loor-barrels with the vigi-
lance of a new inspector before mis- Official
eye-sight grows weak--and that shall know
the difference between " Richmond mid
dings" and " Richmond without the mid
dlings-and shall drive away from the Corn
Exchange the peddlers who sell fraudulent
branding-irons, as the money-changers were
driven from the temple with a whip of
small cords "A reform that shall 90 down