San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-05-16
SOME VERY WICKED DRINKS.

verse to whisky" said naval officer
to Washington Star reporter, "but
there is many another drink in this
world to which old rye or Kentucky
bourbon is as milk for babies. For
instance, there is the 'hootchenoo' OF
the Chilcats of Southern Alaska.
Doubtless the methods of distilla-
ton of this remarkable beverage
were originally suggested to the Chill
cats by United States soldiers. Any
sort of vegetables made into a
mash is employed as raw material.
The mash is put in large tin can,
which is connected with another tin
can Just like it by the tube of a hol-
| low vegetable stem that grows to
| length Of many feet in those regions.
| A fire is built under the can that con-
tains the mash and the alcoholic
properties pass over into the other
vessel. The natives drink the liquor
| thus distilled, and are driven wild
| by it. have seen something of the
way it operates in the course OF GER
| tain naval experience on the Alaskan
coast. Very likely you have heard
of the style in which certain jewellers
in that cline celebrate their arrival
at the maximum of worldly fortune.
Once in a while it occurs that big
man finds himselfin possession OfSlO,-
600, mostly in the shape Of blankets,
such being the currency of that part
of the world. He has been working
for that end all his life, and he en-
phasjZes its accomplishment by
giving a festival, called a pot latch
during which he spends or distrib-
utes in the shape of presents all that
he has gathered together in the shape
of property. incidentally, the popu-
lar drink IS served ad libitum and the
guests begin the fun with the widest
orgies, winding up at length with
General pandemOnic celebration,
clawing and chewing and generally
trying to destroy one another to the
best of their ability.O
And why does the drink produce
such a surprising effect"
"Well, my notion Is that the aW-
full results of taking stuff are in a
large measure attributable to its
being so new from the still. There is
apt to be in any such alcoholic bev-
erage, new made. a certain consider
known as fusil oil. Fusil oil is All
alcohol. People suppose, when they
speak of alcohol, that it is always one
thing and one only; but as matter
of fact, there are really a dozen diff
ferent alcohols. You can derive al
cohol from anything that is vegetable
by the process of distillatiOn. Take
the fiber that is made into wood pulp
and distill it-yOu have alcohol. Now
whereas properly seasoned whisky is
readily digested in very moderate
quantities, when new from the still it
will set the person who drinks it fair
ly crazy, chiefly though the operation
of the fusil oil in it. This fusil oil is
very volatile, and 1t will escape by
natural processes from liquor that is
kept for time, but SO long as it re-
mains it is deadly. 1t will induce
temporary insanity off-hand."
HAS the freshness of the drink
consumed anything to do with the
madness of the natives who run
amuck in the Malay Peninsula?'
decidedly. What the Malays
drink is popularity known all over
Eastern Asia as 'arrack,' the name
derived from the Arabic 'arrak,' sig
nifying 'perspiration.' 1t is distilled,
the best of it, from the uneXpanded
flowers of certain varieties of palms,
the resulting Juice being known as
'tOddy.' Hence our name for GER
tain strong drink. This tOddy Is
simply fermented and the resulting
liquor drunk.
"A vile kind of arTack is made from
impure mOlasses that is left over as
refnse in the manufacture of raw SUI
gar, rice being fermented with 1T and
percentage of palm tOddy added.
Under the influence of this baleful in
tOXicant / have known whole parties
of Malays to run amuck together,
the sport concluding with the death
of all the participants as we'll as the
| destruction of numbers of innocent
| people. This, you know, is the favOrite
| Malay plan of committing suicide. A
| good r-nothing fellow makes up
his mind that he wants to die, and so
he fills himself up with raw arrack
| and starts TO run amuck, tabbing
every one that comes in his way uu-
| til he himself is slain. Good arrack
from palm toddy is not Objectionable.
| The destruCtiveneSs of the inferior
SIull, imagine, Is nalHly uue W
it's being consumed in crude state
before its more poisonous properties
have been eliminated by seasoning.
1t is the same way with piscO."
"And what is that"
at is the distilled juice of certain
sort of white grspes, somewhat re-
sembling the Malaga variety, which
grow mostly in the neighDOrhOOd OF
PisCO, on the coast of Peru. The
brandy-fOr such, of course, it is-thus
made, is drunk raw from the still