The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1878-08-08
Peril Of Iced Tea.

Beware the cup. In these days of
raging Thermometers and busy coroners
it is fraugbt with peril. Scientific men,
learned men in the professions, have
compelled us to drop the luscious straw
berry in terror by screaming out TO us
that it would give us the hydrophobia.
They have made us heartsick with ap-
prehension by showing that the tempt
ing peach in our hands was reeking with
the deadly prussic acid. They have I'LL
ed our ice cream with poisonous i'm
purities. They have forbidden us to
drink water that has passed through iron
or lead pipes, or that has stood in o
wooden vessel, or lain in a cemented
cistern, or rippled from the rock of the
hillside, impregnated with heaven and
chemistry only know what awful sub
stance, until one restriction after another
has made it the only safe way for a man
to get drink of water, for him to lie
down on his back, open his mouth, and
wait for the shower. Science has kindly
warned us of the death that turks in the
coffee cup. The cup that blesses the
breakfast table impairs the digestion.
Large doses of it produce palpitation Of
the heart. It is adulterated with Vene-
tian red and native sesquioxide of iron.
Science has also warned us against the
use of warm tea, bread and butter, meat,
vegetables, fruit, grain, roots, berries,
milk, and similar articles as food. Sin
gularly enough, science has not yet as
sailed iced tea. But it will not do to
permit people to enjoy this cool, delight
full beverage, simply because its taste is
grateful to the wearied system during
this scorching weather. We must do
our duty, though science may shrink
from it, and the people may cry out
against us. There is danger in iced tea,
and If you would live long and we'll shun
the cooling cup. We will cite a few in
stances of carefully made experiments.
On the 10th of June, John @. Hemp
stead, of West Hill, began to drink iced
tea at dinner and supper. He kept up
this practice for nearly three weeks, and
then one day, going down the Division
street steps, slipped and fell, abrading
the skin of both legs, and running a
silver into the ball of his thumb 80 far
that it made his teeth ache when he
pulled it out. His clothing was also
considerably torn. When he went home
that evening he learned that his eldest
boy had been whipped at school for
sticking pin as far through another
boy as the head would let it go. He was
warned to quit drinking iced tea, but he
persisted in the practice, and he is now
sleeping in the valley, between West
and North Hill, where he lives, and
says he never felt so well in his life.
But may be he lies about it.
Henry Esterfeldt, of Eighth street,
drank iced tea regularly every sulmer
for three years. He persisted, and one
Sunday afternoon while he was out driv-
ing his horse ran away and smashed
seventeen dollars out of a borrowed
buggy. He paid the money, but neg
lected the warming. He went on drink
ing iced tea, and in less than six weeks
somebody poisoned his dog.
A young woman who did plain sewing
in this city, while employed in the fami-
ly of Ralph Henderson, of Maple street,
became addicted to the use of iced tea.
She soon ran a sewing machine needle
through her thumb, and for many days,
whenever she picked up cup of iced
tea, sharp pain ran through that
thumb. She refused to obey the warn
ing, however, and in six weeks she was
carried away. The man who carried her
away married her first.
Last week, at the beginning of the
heated term, two eminent scientific
gentlemen, of Burlington, took strong,
healthy, black and tan dog and immersed
him in tub of pure cistern water, into
which a weak solution of iced tea had
been poured. They held the dogs head
under the water fifteen minutes, although
he struggled violently, thus showing the
natural and instructive aversion to a
substance which intelligent human be-
ings blindly and eagerly drink, and when
the gentlemen took him out of the tub
he was dead. If a teacupful of iced tea
in tubful of water will kill dog, think
for yourselves what must be the effect OF
a strong, undiluted cup of this decoction
upon the system of weak woman.
Eleven grains of strychnine mixed in
a tablespoonful of iced tea will kill the
Oldest man in America.-BurlingtOn
HaOkeye.