New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-01-27
DEATH IN THE DEcANTER.

prussic acid, or any other deadly preparation
to customer. he labels it Poison" The law
requires this as a safeguard against accidents.
But there is no statute to protect the public
against the destructive beverages Of the bar
room. No labels proclaiming their deleterious
character are affixed to them; but, on the
contrary, they are recommended by the
vendors as pure and wholesome. On
the walls of the retail liquor stores ara
painted in conspicuous letters such announce.
ments as these pure imported and domestic
liquors. T" The finest imported liquors, ont of
bond,r &C., &c and yet the fiery compounds
thus indorsed are impregnated with posons as
virulent and active as the fatal drugs which,
the law says, shall not pass into the hands Of
the people without their life-destroying nature
being signifed on the packages or walls con-
tanning them. What strange incOngruity is
this 1t is a penal offense in the druggist to
sell poison, even in the smallest quantities, I'M
labeled, while the liquor dealer can dispense it
all day and all night to thirsty crowds, war
ranting it as a healthful article, without incur
ring any penalty whatever.
What is to be done under these circnm-
stances7 How are the public to be protected
against the adulterators These practices have
been officially exposed. The whole community
has been shown, by the results of infallible
chemical tests. that the liquors of commerce,
whether sold in fTst-class hotels or common
dram-shops, are all more or less noxous.
What then should be the course of rational be-
ings with these facts before themf The qucs-
ton is easily answered. In the first place slim
ulants are only needed incidentally. When
pure and scientifically combined with the ex-
tracts, &C., of valuable medicinal roots barks,
and other vegetable products, they become of
immense importance in the cure and preyen-
ton of disease; but they are not, under any
circumstances, necessary as beverages Let all
prudent people, therefore abandon the use OF
unmedicated alcoholic stimulants. There is
one article of which the unauthorized essence.
Of sound rye is the spirituous basis,
and of which the juices of The most
genial products of the vegetable king
dom are the medicinal ingredients, which
may safely be taken by al who require
an invigorant and corrective. This preparation
has now ranked as standard specific for dys-
pepsia, debility, bilious complaints, nervous
ness malarious feyers, and many other ALL
ments, for upward of twenty years, and is adj
mirably adapted to all cases in which tonic
Alternative and anti-bilious agent is desirable.
The article bears the unpretending name OK
Hostetters stomach bitters 1t is claimed
to be the most wholesome stimulant and restoT.
alive known, and in view of the startling dis
closures recently made with regard to all liquors
used as beverages, the present seems to be q
proper opportunity for stating in plain terms
its merits as medicinal preparation.
The attention of philanthropic citizens inter-
ested in the Temperance movement is invited
to the facts disclosed by Professor Chandler Of
New York, who was employed by the Board OF
Health to make a careful inspection OF the
liquors sold at the low taverns of the Five
Points and other obscure localities. He tested
thirty-two samples, and found them all i'm
pure, and many of them horribly aduterated.
Vinegar and rancid lamp oil" 'fusil oil,'
"pine shavings,n and other denominations are
enumerated among their compOnents. While
Professor Chandler was testing these staples
of common groggeries, Professor John c.
Draper, one of the most profound chemists OK
the present day, was making thorough quail
tative and cumulative analysis OF the liquors
sold at the highest prices in the bar-rooms Oh
the principal hotels and restaurants OF the city,
and his report is of still greater interest to the
friends of temperance than that of Dr.
Chandler. 1t discloses the astounding fact THAI
the spirits kept for sale in these splendid re-
sorts are, as rule, quite as poisonous, though
not quite as nauseous, as the stuff quaffed by
laboring men in the rear dens of the corner
groceries. It appears that if there is any
difference between the deleterious properties
of ffty-cen brandy and ten-cent rum.
the latter is, generally speaking, the least
poisonous of the two. The effect OF
both is to beget a perpetual thirst for
fiery alcohol, which is consequently poured
down the threats of the victims day and night
with their own suicidal and trembling hands,
until chronic inflammation of the stomach, and
finally of the brain, cOnsigns them to prema-
ture grave. .l
What physician, after these exposures, viii
venture to prescribe the articles to which they
refer as stimulants for the sick. If a table
spoonfnl of any one of them is ordered to DO
taken three or four times day, the probability
is that it will in the end produce erGr,Hg !tor
itself which nothing less than copious dransh"
viU satisfV a...