The Portland daily press., 1869-01-25
DAILY PRESS.
CORTLAND
Monday Morning, January q 1869.
AduIteration of I,ioro-

| Adulteration of Liqnors,
The New York World is still fighting "tbe
flesh and the devil" 1t has fought a GOOD
| fight against adulteration of food and como
down heavily upon 'short weight" and now
| it opens its batteries upon the adulteration of
| the various kinds of liquors. 1t is quite pos
sble, in discussing this subject, we may tread
| on somebody's toes and make some stomachs
feel somewhat uneasy, but it is the duty of
journalism to tell the truth however unpleas-
ant or unsavory it may be. 1t has been believ-
ed by good many moderate and even by some
immoderats drinkers, that if liquors have
crossed the ocean aud been imported" they
are pure. But they are terribly mistaken.
We have often been amused to see Yam
KEGS drink at the bars of the Montreal and
Quebec houses, smack their lips and praise
the liquors when they were just as much
adulterated as those they purchased and
drank at home. The truth is, there is Just
as much impure liquor in Canada as in the
States. We once conversed with a large
dealer in Montreal upon this subject, and he
frankly told us that he had but very little of
anything like pure liquor in his store, and
yet his store was filled with wine casks. He
said liquors were manufactured in the old
country expressly for the market in Canada,
and those Yankees who drink at our public
horses and think they are swallowing pure
liquors are most egregiously mistaken. Not
lro, of mn hra ,1u laJ tI,o
grape passes their lips.
A few winters ago we boarded in the tame
house in New York city with wine mer-
chant whose native State was Maine. He
was shrewd business man and understood
all the tactics employed in wine-selling. Hav-
ing become somewhat familiarity acquainted
with him we asked him one day what kinds
of wine he kept in his store. He said Cup
town the price regulates the quality. Ask
good round price and the uptowners always
think they have first rate wine from the
juice of the grape, but there's not drop of
grape juice in it. Some of these fashionable
houses" he continued, shave tasters," but
they are as easily humbugged as those who
employ them"
Wine-tasters forsooth! Why, these fellows
taste SO much that their lips, tongue and pal
ates are all vitiated and totally incapable of
selecting the pure from the impure. In fact,
they would be more likely to select the man
ufactured and adulterated liquor because
that is more familiar to their taste. 1t is very
seldom they have the opportunity of tasting
pure wine, and if they should they would
condemn it, for the reason that it is so un-
like that to which they have been accustom-
ed. Perhaps there is no class of human be-
ings so much and so often humbugged as
those who are in the habit of drinking dis
titled and fermented liquors.
The World comes to the conclusion that
what is called and is sold for brandy in New
York city, even at the "best" places and at
the highest prices, is no brandy at all. And
yet people are paying from twenty five to six
ty cents per glass for mixture of fusel oil,
cheap corn whiskey and water which does
does not contain one drop of brandyl This
is hard case for brandy drinkers, and physi-
clans would do well to refrain from prescrib-
ing brandy. if they would avoid poisoning
their patients. Now almost everybody knows,
or might know, that the coantry is flooded
with bogus champagne, or sparkling wines,
manufactured from New Jersey cider or
German Sautsrne, with noxious es: ences and
carbonc acid gas. 1T requires but little
more skill to manufacture it out of such in
gradients than it does to make soda water.
Our young men who have been SO hilarious
over bogus champagne may be assured that
they probably never tasted drop of Held
sick or Moet & Chandon, although they have
paid the prices.
The grape from which genuine champagne
is made has power of generating carbonic
acid gas which is not found in any other vim
Gus preparation. 1t is generally believed that
this wine produces high exhilaration of the
spirits, differing greatly in character from or
dinary intoxication, but the truth is, the after
ehect-the reaction-of champagne de-
bauch is very depressing. And surely the
after effects of drinking the bogus stuff must
be truly appalling. Nov this effervescing
process is easily obtained, the basis being a
cheap Sauterne which can be purchased in
any of the French markets at a very low
price. And in these days the beautiful light
golden color can be readily given to it by the
appliances of modern chemistry. 1t is sweet
ened with rock candy, and sometimes ''fixed
up" with poor brandy. To this mixture Is
added cunning compound of drugs and es-
sences which imparts to the stuff bouquet
so exactly resembling the genuine article that
connoisseur might be deceived A connois-
seur, forsooth! A professional faster! Why,
these officials are more easily deceived than
almost anybody else! The processes of Or
ganic chemistry are so wonderful that the
most delicate favors and the most subtle fra
grances OF the vegetable kingdom are imitat-
ed without much trouble. Now the last touch
OF art is to impregnate it with carbonic acid
gas, and this is done by means of the ordina-
ry soda-water apparatus. One thing more is
to be done; that is to brand the corks with
the devices copied from those of the great
champagne houses of France-the three
firms of Heidsick, the Veuve Clicquot, the
Moet, the Chateau Margaux, etc. Thus is
manufactured what passes current down the
throats of millions for pure champagne.
Most assuredly We live in wonderful age,
and although man was made upright, yet he
has sought out many inventions. Now, if
men and women don't wish to be cheated, the
surest and most direct way TO avoid the bo-
gus stuff is to plant their feet on the rock of
total abstinence. The Brooklyn IN. ~ Ea-
gle says: "On comparison of the reports of
the World and the Excise Board of officers,
we find that the respectable tippler who pays
his twenty cents for whiskey and forty for
brandy, has no advantage, except possibly in
flavor, over the less fastidious convivialist
who pays but ten cents for nip in less stylish
quarters" The world is still deceived by Or
nament