The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1881-04-28
FRAUDS IN FOOD.
How Articles Of Diet are kdulterated
till Purity ig Almost Unknown.
Rice, Lime. Soda and Stryohnine In
Beer.-White Earth in Candy.
From the Chicago Times.

| From the Chicago Times.
An ancient and reputable apostle has
said: TT is not that which goeth into the
mouth which defleth a man, but thai
which cometh out of the mouth, which de
fileth him" If the apostle had lived in
Chicago in the year 1881 he would have
found ample reason to change his mind
To-day the greatest pressure upon the pub
lie intelligence is the knowledge of the
want of public conscience. Fraud, the
dry rot of trade, enters into almost every
relation of commerce between the produ
Ger, the dealer, and the consul
mer, and sanity deacons and prom
inent citizens, who would resent the
! imputation of swindling, act out,
day by day, a living lie, and deliberate
Ilv cheat neighbor and customer.
| friend and stranger alike. Society, and
the law, which is the creation of society,
combine to brand the wretch who filches a
pocket book as an outcast and a thief
while at the same time the evangelists of
the pulpit and the judges on the bench
distOrt fact, and curry favor with success
full fraud in the case of the merchant who
swindles his customers, by inventing polite
| terms such as mercantile exigency" and
demand of trade for commercial thieving
st. Paul who was so diplomatic an apostle
go merchant advises Christiansto be "all
| things to all men," The Chicago mer-
chants certainly verify their Christ
ianity by fulfilling that particular
teaching of ST. Paul to abe very letter.
How some of the ''prOminents" who get
their living by legalized and polite fraud
enriched by authorizations and shams year
| after year, who pay pewrents out of frau
dulent profit, give aims to God at sacra-
ment out of it, keep wives and children on
it, pay life insurance and bury their dead
out of it, must grin when their children
show them how well they have written in
their copy-books, Honesty is the best po-
licy." They know well enough it is the
best policy = they are shrewd enough and
worldly-wise enough for that - but they
also know that
FRAUD Is THE MOST SUCCESSFUL POLICY,
So they stick to fraud. The time was and
not so long ago either, when the trick of a
swindling trade was left to the irresponsible
huckster, who took his risks in getting his
living and his profits by essaying the role
of a common cheat Then the public con-
science and the laws of the commonwealth
combined not infrequently consigned the
pretty swindler to the jail, but now the
genius of fraud has been made respectable
from custom, if not by law, and the artifice
of the common knave has become the cap
ital of the merchant prince and the excuse
of the time serving scientist Formerly
commercial fraud led to the treadmill and
bread and water; now it is the broad
avenue to the power and luxury of mil.
| lion of money.
The Times has recently inuagurated some
| fresh Investigations in the direction of the
aduteration of the common articles of do
nestle consumption sold at wholesale and
retail in this city. In the course of this in
vestigation ample evidence has been fur
| nished of the gross adulteration of articles,
and the prevalence of false weights and
measures.
A wholesale grocer, member of a firm
| the name of WHICH it published would be
| widely recognized Throughout the West,
said in answer to the questions of the
Times reporter: I'VE are obliged to carry
THREE DISTINCT LINES OF GOODS.
| in our trape. The third or poorest grade
we should never think of showing to any
but dealer from a small country place;
| the larger dealers generally select from the
second grade, vile the first or best grade
| of goods is reserved for the leading dealers
in Chicago and other cities large enough to
hold good-paying family trade. This is
necessary to meet the demands made from
the country, because, sell goods as close as
we may, there is always a demand for a
cheaper and inferior grade of articles and
this demand we are obliged to meet"
Into alcoholic liquors the distiller, the
mixer, the jobber, or the retail introduces
sulphuric acid, oil of vitriol, gums and col
oring matter, the latter frequently of a
mos deleterious and health destroying
character.
The brewer strengthens and freshing
his thin and poor-favored beer, and re-
wives his old stock with rice, lime, soda
and strychnine.
| The confectiOner pOisons society whole
sale, commencing on the little children first
and turning to villanous account their
! luvnnile cravings for sweets. The modern
candy store has grown to be the curse of
| the neighborhood, and the average manu-
facture of candy the constant source of
hope to the undertaken Perhaps in the
article of candy more danger is to be APP
pretended than from any other article in
| general consumption on account of the
poisonous terra alba, the plaster of Paris
and cOlOring matter used in creating it.
The manufacture of impure candies and
sweetmeats that contain any of the sub
stances enumerated above should be made
a penal offence, and should be punished
severely. Not long ago in this city g
happy father gave birthday party to the
young friends of his little boy One OF
the children ate too freely of the birthday
cake which had been provided for the
occasion and died in spasms in the nigh;
following, and although medical testimony
proved that the spasm was caused by over
indulgence, yet it was also developed thai
the arsenic and copper in the colorine
matter of thecake had largely contributed
to the condition which had caused death
Analysis of the frosting and colored orna
ments which were upon the remainder OF
the cake showed that there was in ever
| this remainder sufficient arsenic, copper
and yellow crome to kill man if taken al
| one time.
| PUBLIC APATHY.
Often as the Times has called attention
to the serious and dangerous frauds perpe-
trated in the candy business, the public
has not profited by the warning as much
as could be wished, and still the darlings
of the household pine and die from insidi-
Gus disease, and the seat of much of the
trouble, the neighboring candy store, is
never suspected of being the cause.
A prominent analytical chemist ycster-
/ Il ,oerord ho 70 oo1