Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-03-22
SOME VERY WICKED DRINKS.
Persons Visiting Alaska and Other
Strange Lands Had Better Avoid Them.

"People have remarks to make adverse to
whisky" said naval officer yesterday to a
STAR reporter, "but there is many another
drink in this world to which old rye of Ken
lucky bourbon is as milk for babes. For
instance, there is the 'hootchenoo of the Chill
cats of southern Alaska. Doubtless the method
of distillation of this remarkable beverage was
originally suggested to the Chilcats by United
States soldiers. Amy sort of vegetables made
into 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 hollow vegetable stem that grows
to length Of many feet in those regions.
fire is built under the can that contains 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.
l have seen something OF the way ii operates in
the course of certain naval experiences 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 il occurs that
big man finds himself in possession of
$4,000,
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 emphasizes its accomplishment
by giving festival, called a 'pot-latch,' dur
ing which he spends or distributes in the shape
OF presents all that he has gathered together
In the shape Of property. Incidentally. the
popular drink is served ad hbitum and the
guests begin the fun with the widest orgies
winding up at length with a general pande-
monte celebration, clawing and chewing and
generally trying to destroy one another to the
best of their ability"
"And why does the drink produce such
surprising effect?" queried The STAR reporter,
"Well, my notion is that the awful results of
taking the stuff are in large measure attributa-
bic to its being SO new from the still. There is
apt to be in any such alcoholic beverage new
made, certain considerable percentage of
powerful poison known fusil oil. Fusil oil
is an 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 dozen different alcohols. You can de-
rive alcohol
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 fairly crazy, chiefly
through the operation of the fusil oil in it.
Ibis fusll oil Is very volatile and ii will escape
by natural processes from liquor that is kept
for time, but 50 long as 1t remains it is
deadly. 1t viii induce temporary insanity Oh
hand
"Has the freshness Of the drink consumed
anything to do with the madness of the na-
tives who run amuck in the Malay peninsula"
decidedly. What the Malays drink is pop
ularly known all over eastern Asia as 'arrack'
the name derived from the Arabic 'arrak,' sig
nlfying 'perspiration.' 1t is distilled, the best
OF it, from the uneXpanded flowers of certain
varities of palms, the resulting juice being
known as 'toddy.' Hence our name for a GER
tain sort of strong drink. This teddy is simply
fermented and the resulting liquor drunk.
"a VILE KIND OF ARRACK
is made from impure molasses that is left over
as refuse in the manufacture of raw sugar, rice
being fermented with it and percentage of
palm toddy added. Under the influence of this
paleful intoxicant have known whole parties
Of Malays to run amuck together, the sport only
concluding with the death of all the partici-
pants as well as the destruction Of numbers of
innocent people. This, you know is the ia
vorite Malay plan of committing suicide.
good-for-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, stab
bling every one that comes in his way until he
himself is slain Good arrack from palm toddy
is not Objectionable. The destructiyeness of
the inferior stuff, imagine, 10 mainly due to
its being consumed in a crude state before its
more poisonous properties have been elimi-
mated by seasoning. 1t is the same way with
'pisco.'"
Sand what is that2"
at is the distilled Juice of q certain sort of
white grapes, some what resembling the Malaga
variety, which grow mostly in the neighbor-
hood of Pisco,
ON THE COAST OF PERU.
''The brandy-for such, of course, il is-thus
made is drunk raw from the still and it sets
the men who swallow it fairly mad Usually
they become murderously inclined. In the
same way Mexicans who get drunk on the
liquor distilled from the cactus root and known
as 'mescap become horribly fierce and are
ready to plunge their knives into the most in
offensive people they encounter. The rawness
OF the beverage il mainly responsible for this
symptom, / am convinced. have known the
crew Of Q ship on the Alaska coast which was
out Of grog to buy up . considerable stock 81
Jamaica ginger discovered in q grocery shop,
and, having drunk il, to fall upon one another
with knives and axes There 10 Q good sort Of
pisco known - Its lia,' which 10 not distilled
from grape skins and has had time to season"
Father: 81 don't believe you've an ounce Of
brains in your head"
Son: '1hey are entirely unnecessary, fathah-
20 only in fashionable society.-Lte.
Charles Wolf advertises in New York that his
49, nf -.