Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-07-13
PROUD OF HIS FRAUD.
A Philadelphia Man Who Turns Coffee
Beans Out of Flour, and Isn't
AFRAID TO ADVERTISE HIS GOODS.
Pittsburg Coffee Roasters Warning Their
Customers Against
AN OPEN AND BAREFACED sWINDLE

A man. said by Mr.. George I. Whitney
to be a cousin of the one who first made
wooden nutmegs, is making some kind OF
artificial coffee in Philadelphia, and it has
found its way to this city. 1t might pay
coffee consumers to examine their berries
and find whether they are being imposed
upon. Arbuckles & Co. have some Of the
bogus beans on exhibition, and Messrs.
Flood & Edsall showed reporter Of The
DISPATCH some of them, which might de-
ceive not only "the very elect" but a model
housewife as we'll, mixed in the proportion
Of 70 per cent genuine 10 % per cent bogus.
The manufacturers disingenuous circular
reads as follows:
DEAR SIR send you n sample of imitation
coffee. This is manufactured bean, and Is
composed OF Hour. You can easily mix ID per
cent of this substitute in with genuine coffee
that ranges In price from 20 to 221 cents, and 1t
will improve the flavor of the same 1t granu-
lates the same as coffee. If you deal with us
II will be in the most complete confidence.
This IS. s." coffee superior substitute) is
packed in barrels; weight about lI0 pounds to
crease your profits ~ cents per pound and
improve the flavor. Try a sample barrel: price,
llH cents per pound. No attention paid to
postal cards. Send shipping directions. would
not show samples even to employees.
ONCE MADE OF POTATOES.
Several years ago q Cincinnati reporter,
while investigating the methods of bogus
coffee makers, came across an Italian who,
armed with tin mold something after the
shape Of potato peeler, was scooping out q
very fair fac simile of a coffee bean from
glazing process similar to that which roasters
employ with genuine coffee.
This was an offense that might be particu-
larly excused, on the same plea advanced
by the storied mother-it was ga very little"
fraud-but this in Philadelphia is one Of
gigantic dimensions. 1t lis one that can be very
successfully worked on poor people. A
poor mans wife, who is compelled by force
of circumstances to provide a table for
large family on 81 a week-thousands in
this city are forced to do so-falls into the
trap readily. She is offered coffee cents
pound under the regular rate, with an as
surance that it is just as good as any other.
Two dollars year saving is an item to such.
She may or may not discover that her coffee,
adulterated % per cent, is weaker than it
should be, but if she does make the dis
covery she is apt to be consoled by the re-
Election that the family live through it and
she has a small pittance saved. The woman
who cries because she is forced to curtail her
dress expenditure and $500 a year. knows
nothing Of the trials of laborer's wife, to
whom such a sum means luxury.
Arbuckles & Co. have sounded the tocsin
In their circular sent out this week, but how
many dealers have taken the bait and will
strike hands with the Philadelphia rascal
In. turning dirty penny, 1t is difficult to
ascertain.
OTHER SIMILAR BRANDs.
The fraud may not be quite 90 bad rs that
Of making cream.tartar " per cent gypsum,
as the bogus bean may possibly be made OF
-four, as the makers claim, which would
possess some nutrition; but, as Mr.. Flood
observes, there Is no assurance that II Is
-four. There may be earthly substances that
can be combined so as TO granulate when
ground 80 as to be indistinguishsble from
coffee, and the most that can be said in ex-
tenuation is that possibly they may not be
deleterious.
With water In whisky, water in stocks,
water In milk, sand and glucose In sugar,
gypsum In cream-tartar, terra-alba In candy,
corn husks In pepper, and so on ad inhni- |
trm, II seems strange that this generation |
should tire OF paper collars, unless II be on
the ground that they were really what they
proiessed 10 be. Once prudent people
thought they could circumvent the adul.
terator by buying coffee aud spices In grain,
but now they must be experts to do II, as
the grain OF coffee and several condiments
can be counterIeited so that detection Is only
possible to the practiced eye.