The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1884-12-06
POISONOUS DRINKS.

Tho vtllainous Compounds Which Drinking
Men Four Down Their Threats - How
Most Of THE Liquors of the Day Are Made
"a Concentrated Lie, 1Ionstrous Beyond
Belief"
Some months ago Rev. Thomas Z.
Green, of Chicago, gave his people some
Sunday Evening Discusses on Man
Traps in that city. He prepared for
them by a personal visitation and inyas-
tigaton. The sermons were criticised
as sensational. They certainly did
produce 4 sensation. 1t would have
argued i'll for the moral sensitiveness of
his people if they had not
Some years ago the Christian Union
obtained through a friend the receipt
book Of a house in New York City who
advertised by secret circulars, addressed
only to the trade, the materials neces-
sary for making any kind Of wine and
strong drink. We publishedits receipts
and gave its name and charged nothing
tor the free advertisement. We are pre-
pared, therefore, for the reported results
of Mr.. Green's Investigations
9" / have made investigation during
the past weeks in regard to liquors
purchased in a dozen or more OF the
saloons of the city. In all cases the
liquors purchased for me were lust such
as would have been sold to any casual
customer, and such as are sold every
day and night to hundreds. These have
been carefully analyzcd and examined,
and chemistry has added her voice to
this endeayor OF exposing the man-traps
of the devil.
Good liquor is expensive. To be
prepared in the most approved way, to
be carefully distilled. to be kept away
sufficient length of time for the fuscl oil
40 slowly eVaporatc, means far too high
price for the common market. But
whisky and brandy, new made. are unfit
for consumption. They must have the
color, the Odor, the taste, that tell of
long years OF ripening. And so if YOU
want an exceptionally good drink the
bartender will smack his lips and tel
you something about 184S and Ken
lucky. You may put that right down
as lie, and conclude that it was made
from neutral spirits into lS4S Kentucky
whisky in his back room last week. or
at best last month in the wholesale
house on Lake street That evaporating
dish and the test-tube have some mar
Vicious tales to tell about those Kentucky
(P) whisk,es. And just here l want to
thank the faculty OF the College of
Physicians and Surgeons for the ser
vice OF its laboratory. | am sorry for
the foul fumes that must have gone up
from these filthy mixtures, but believe
many young man viii thank the test
tubes of this laboratory of science for his
redemption from the curse of drink.
'Now let me tell you what was
found In the first place, that the ma
jority of liquors We're made from what
is called neutral spirits, instead of being
what it is callcd-corn or rye whisky,
or apple brandy. And this neutral
spirit is made not by rectifying or dis
tilling, but by taking the crude high
wine, and pouring ten gallons of it
upon five pounds of unslacked
lime, with little alum and sweet inter
added for flavor. The mess is stirred
up, the lime Stacks itself, the mixture
is settled and strained, and becomes
neutral spirits for the manufacture of
forty-year-old Kentucky whisky And
of it three-fourths of the common
drinks are made.
"Now for some of the liquors. On
the corner of Fifth avenue and Harrison
street half pint bottle of whisky was
purchased. 1t was composed of about
siXty-iiye per cent. neutral spirits-this
essence OF concentrated I've and I'M
Stacked lime-and the rest water, mixed
up with glycerine, coTored with burned
sugar aud cleared with arsenic. of
which there was enough, if q man
should drink a pint of il at once, to kill
him in minute. The flavor was prob
ably the essence OF bourbon, which is
made by secret process out of alcohol
and acids, producing n kind of ether
This particular sample had in it also
sulphate Of zinc and chronic acid prob
ably a part Of this essence Of bourbon.
That was old Kentucky whisky, forty
years of age. What a nice mess to
drink; concentrated lye-spell it lie
if you Ike glycerine, arsenic, zinc,
chromium, and plenty of fusel oil
"From the corner of Fourth avenue
and Polk street comes half-pint of gin. !
About sixty per cent. Of neutral spirits;