Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-06-05
A DYSPEPTlc GRUMBLER.

A DYSPEPTIC GRUMBLER.
Wholesale Adulteration OF Food and
Drink the Cause of Dyspepsia In
America.
ooh, I'm usedupwith the dyspepsia"
declared a sour-visaged, discontented-
looking man to m acquaintance as he
leaned against a bar chewing a nutri-
tlous toothpick. .I'm only one Of
Thousands" he added, with a heavy
sigh, "who have been made dyspeptic,
in America by the authorizations OF
food. No use to talk climate or cook.
cry to mo. 1t is the adulteration of
food that creates dyspepsia. Why,
bless you, the American cooking is on
the average the best in the world, but
it is almost impossible to get anything
pure to cook.
.Alum is mixed with yeast powder,
baking powders are adulterated with
chalk and sugar, sirup and honey are
extensively doctored. The first three
are adulterated with glucose. which is
manufactured by treating starch or
woody fiber with sulphuric acid.
1t is never advertised = glucose
isn't cap tell you. and it isn't easy
to find. A large dealer told me the
other day that he didn't believe he'd
had any genuine molasses in his stor.
for years. l never buy any honey UNI
less l a get it from an intimate
friend. Milk is weakened wita water
and colored with a preparation made
in the east. 1t is not generally known,
either, but it is a fact that the milk of
farrow COWS is unfit for food, being
filled with an etfete excretory matter.
And butter-faugh!-it is not only
adulterated, but counterfeited. Fat
cheese is made from skimmcd-milk
mixed with lard and tallow so skill
fully as to defy detection. I was at
an exhibit Of butter and cheese in tho
State of New York awhile ago where
the first prize was awarded to a cheese
which the makers, with pride-mind
you, with pride-afterward affirmed to
be a manufactured article.
"Do you know what gluten meal is?
No? Well, you see that advertisement,
but you don't see glucose. 1t is a
product incident to the manufacture of
glucose. Fine fruit tlavors-what do
you think they are largely made from?
All! the chemist has wonderful re-
sources. They are made to a great
extent from rotten cheese, fusel oil,
sulphuric acid, ether, and other things
quite as injurious to the delicate lin
ings of the stomach. Many of the
saltwater sirups. CONNECTIONS and iel-
lies are favored with such stuff. OF
course a few persons use genuine fruit
favors. The sourness of lemon sirup
and lime juice is strengthened with
sulphuric acid. Candy is composed
largely of glucose and flour. Mighty
little pure sugar goes into it. Manu-
facturers claim the substitute which is
made from corn is not Objectionable.
Candy is adulterated with various sub
stances. Sometimes terra alba is used,
and the coloring matter is often highly
Objectionable.
s.Tea is adulterated with willow, oak,
birch, elm, and other leaves, and with
spent tea leaves; also with poisonous
colorings. Ground coffee sold in pack
ages is often quite acounterfeit. Among
the other coffee authorizations, besides
the old standby chicory, are dried
liver. beans, pease, all kinds of. grain,
tan bark and sawdust. Spices are
mixed largely with inert substances,
and then injurious matter has to be
added to give them fictitious strength.
"Thirty-two deadly poisons are
known to be used in the adulteration
of wines, and whisky is even treated
worse. The popular lager beer is
adulterated also to an alarming ex-
tent, for it is drunk freely by so a
under the belief that it is healthful and
can not be meddled with as are alcoholic
beverages. Even drugs-the very
drugs used for adulterations-are them
selves adulterated. Deadly poisons are
adulterated; Paris green, for instance,
being one.
cit is impossible to estimate the
amount of poison people take into their
system daily, and it's no wonder some
Of us have wrecked constitutions"
concluded the grumbler, as he finished
his toothpick and sauntered out, wear
ing an expression of enmity to all the
world. Chicago NeWs.