The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1884-11-28
We are coming, etc.
POISONOUS DRINKS.

POISONOUS DRINKS.
The Villainous Compounds Which Drinking
Men Pour Down Their Threats - How
Most of the Liquors of the Day Are Made
IA Concentrated Lie, Monstrous Beyond
Belief"
Some months ago Rev. Thomas E.
Green, of Chicago, gave his people some
Sunday Evening Discourses on Man
TrapS in that city. He prepared for
them by personal visitation and inves-
tigation. The sermons were criticised
as sensational. They certainly did
produce a 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 published its receipts
and gave its name, and charged nothing
for the free advertisement. We are pre-
pared, therefore, for the reported results
of Mr.. Green's Investigations:
81 have made investigation during
the past weeks in regard to liquors
purchased in dozen or more of the
saloons of the city. In all cases the
liquors purchased for me were just 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 analysed and examined,
and chemistry has added her voice to
this endeavor 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 a
sufficient length of time for the fusel oil
TO slowly evaporate, 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 tell
you something about 1848 and Ken
lucky. You may put that right down
as lie, and conclude that it was made
from neutral spirits into 1848 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
velous tales to tell about those Kentucky
(O whiskies. And just here [ want to
thank the faculty of the College of
Physicians and Surgeons for the ser
vice of its laboratory. l am sorry for
the foul fumes that must have gone up
from these filthy mixtures, but believe
many young man will 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 were made from what
is called neutral spirits, instead of being
what it is called-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 a little alum and sweet inter
added for flavor. The moss is stirred
up, the lime Stacks itself, the mixture
lis 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-fve per cent. neutral spirits-this
essence of concentrated I've and I'M
Stacked lime-and the rest water, mixed
up with glycerine, colored with burned
sugar and cleared with arsenic, of
which there was enough, if a man
should drink a pint of it at once, to kill
him in a minute. The flavor was prob
ably the essence of bourbon, which is
made by a secret process out of alcohol
and acids, producing kind of ether.
This particular sample had in it also
sulphate of zinc and chronic acid. prob
ably part of this essence of bourbon.
That was old Kentucky whisky, forty
years of age. What nice mess TO
drink; concentrated lye-spell it lie
if you like glycerine, arsenic, zinc,
chromium, and plenty of fusel oil!
''From the corner of Fourth avenue
and Polk street comes haf-pint of gin.
About sixty per cent. of neutral spirits;
the rest water, glycerine, turpentine and
blue vitriol
''From a saloon a few doors away
comes bottle of port wine that is
marvel. The nearest it ever was to o
grapevine was when it passed it on the
cars. 1t has enough neutral spirits to
keep it from spelling; the rest is water
thickened with glycerine and licorice,
while the fayoring of this choice vint-
age is made of zinc, mercury, antimo-
ny and several acids, making, with the
alcohol, sort of chemical ether that
would do chemists heart good to
smell at.
"a bottle of choice sherry, from Clark
street, has the same neutral spirits, with
choice favoring and coloring of lead,
iodine, strychnine, muriatic and sui
phuric acid, and arsenic to give it clear
ness and sparkle.
From little further uptown a bot
tie of choice Kentucky whisky from
State street, has in it, in a little less
quantities, sulphuric acid, arsenic, sui
phate of zinc and fusel oil in album
dance. Some gin, from Randolph and
La Sale streets, has carbolic acid and
arsenic in addition to its turpentine and
blue vitriol, to make it more palatable
and delightful.
Perhaps as delightful a concoction
as any is bottle of brandy, from Dear
born street, near Washington, made en-