Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1890-11-29
MIsAPPLIED TALENT.
America Great Country fol- Frauds
and Swindles as well as Grand
Inventions.


NAOSilC llSut, the pnOnOgrapn, tram
ways, Pullman trains, timed fruit,
Mark Twain, syndicates, dress paper
shapes, petroleum, patent rockers,
washing machines, gin-sling, and
other actual or doubtful boons, has
also sent us many curious specimens
OF misappled ingenuity. Perhaps in
cargo of American motions" of the
present day one might not find wood
en- nutmegs, ligneOus hams, and eye
less needles; but these were once
actual articles of commerce. The
writer has seen, in the days before
"brands" attained commercial
value, which compelled honest deal.
ing, barrels of American butter which
contained only layer at top and
bottom of the yellow substance, while
the interior was filled up with coarse
salt carefully adjusted to the usual
weight of a barrel of butter. 1t is con-
solatory to know, however, that
American swindlers do not manufac-
ture for export so exclusively as they
used to do, and that they have de.
voted themselves to cultivating the
domestic markets.
In the State Of New Jersey a pub
he inquiry was recently held into al.
legged authorizations of food, and the
report presented by the committee is
remarkable. They had caused six
hundred and twenty>three separate
articles of food offered for sale to be
analysed, and of these they found
only three hundred and twenty to be
pure. Among the pure com modities
were those peculiarly American pro-
ducts, canned goods" and only one
specimen of these was found to be
other than it protested to be. But
when the canned goods" were de-
Quoted from the list, the result was
even less favorable to transatlantic
honesty, for, of the remaining articles,
only 1888 per cent were found to be
pure, while 53.l7 per cent were adul-
terated.
Some of the disclosures were very
curious. Thus, it seems that the act
I've legislation of some years ago
has prevented oleomargarine from
being sold as butter, and oleomarga-
rine has come to be regular and pre-,
sumably wholesome article of domes-
tic consumption under its own proper
name. The analysis found that which
protested to be butter really butter :;
but when they came to examine what
was offered as oleOmargarine, they
found great deal Of it was not oeo-
margarine, but only bad butter. This
Is a sufficiently curious turning of the
tables.
Lard, again, has become very in
definite article. What used to bell eaf
Lard" is declared to be now almost
non>eXistent. What is now offered
as western Lard" says the report,
is composed of the fat of all portions
OF the hog mixed indiscriminately {:
while "Refned Lard" they found to
be compound of beef-fat, cotton seed
oil and small portion only of hog
fat.
Coffee is largely used in America,
but of twenty-four samples analysed,
only eight passed the inspection. The
others were found to be more or less
mixed with roasted or ground peas,
beans, rye, wheat and chickory. One
sample of reputed "Essence of Coffee"
contained no trace of coffee whatever,
being compound of burnt treacle
and roasted ground corn.
The perfection of fraud, however,
was revealed in the various samples
Of so-called "Ground Srices" exam
ined. The greatest ingenuity is eX-
ercised in the manufacture of pepper,
ground ginger, mustard, ground Gin
namon, ground cloves, and allspice.
The way to make "Pure Pepper" in
America is to mix thoroughly buck
wheat hulls and cocoanut shell well
charred, and then to add little cay
enne for flavoring. To make "Pure
Ginger" you only need Indian corn
meal, turmeric, and a pinch of cay
enne. For Mustard" all you want
is corn meal, turmeric, and pinch of
cayenne. Any kind of spice known
to CeylOn or the Eastern Archipelago
can be produced in New Jersey on
the shortest notice from ground cocoa
nut shells, walnut shells, corn meal,
buckwheat hulls, mustard chaff,
ground charcoal, cayenne, turmeric,
charred grains of any kind, and burnt
bread. Truly, there is no limit to