The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1869-03-31
What People Drink.

In the multitude OF ncStrums that
people are using as beverages, a few
lately developed facts in regard to
them may not prove un~intercsting:
The New York World, some time
since, SEM agents to the different
drinking places throughout the city to
obtain samples of the. different kinds
liquors retailed.. These agents prccur-
ed samples from every kind of place,
from the highest to the lowest. They
obtained thtm from the murkey dens
where thieves, beggars. murderers and
abandoned women held their daily
and nightly orgies from the bars Of
houses of prostitution !; from the ap-
parently half-repectable places, where
the mechanic or day laborer obtained
his daily drink, and on-up or down
to the magnificent palaces, glitter
ing in gold and tinselty, where the
millionaire, the merchant prince and
the other creme la creme of fashionable
society, both masculine and feminine
paid their fifty cents a glass for brandy,
whisky, gin, &c, warranted of pre-
eminent purity and great age. They
went even 10 the drug. stores and to
wholesale establishments, where it had
almost become a matter of history,
that the oldest and purest of liquors on
ly,were kept ), and from all these OBJ
tanned samples of their best qualities
and took them to the labratory of a
celebrated chemist, employed by the
properictors of the. paper, to make a
chemical analysis of all the different
kinds. The, chemist faithfully per-
formed the work assigned him, and
the result of his examinations have
been such as TO startle the whole coun-
try.
In every instance it was found that
a small given quality of the liquor
contained enough poison, when scpar-
ated, to XII, Il strong man Taken
with the liquor, its a action was more
slow but none the less certain. Fusel
oil, described in the, medical works as
t'qn actire, irritant poison as certain
ly. Destructive as the deadly night
shade, was found in as great quantities
in what was denominated the best
brands, as in the horrid stuff that
thieves, murderers and prostitutes
poured down. -theirls throats to. craze
their brains and nerve their bodies up
to the commission of their daily and
nightly crimes and infamies. Other
actiye.poisons vere: found in the al
NEST universally ~~adulterated liquors,
and their necessary effects were stated
to be the destruction of the coatings
and tissues Of the stomach, gradually
eating their. way through as aqua
forts burns and shrivels up the flesh
to which it is applied.
These disclosures necessarily Great
ed great excitement and inquiry. The
general question was /: Wien is 4
man that drinks liquor safe The
reasoning was-and this was confirm
ed by the report of the chemist-that
a glass of liquor by natural processes,
as in the situation of mount left i'll
the barrel or bottle, might throw into
a single glass of the liquor, whether
Of the best or poorest, so-cshed,
enough of the poison, and Sufficiently,
concentrated, to produce death almost
immediately.
This fact-thus semi-ofiicially stat
ed-led to further in. u:ry, and the
records of the police courts, the evi
dence taken at the inquests of the
corner, were examined, to see wheth--
er facts could be gathered which would
prove or disprove this broad statement.
This inquiry led to the most abundant
proof of the correctness of the state
ment. 1t was found that of the mum
erous sudden deaths the proof showed
kl.k AIouN 1oooanaI LII .-..lLX