Morning journal and courier., 1890-04-07

HARD DRINKS AND NO MISTAKE

suicide and Murder in tho Bowls that
Hold Various National Tipples.
From the Washington star.]
"People have remarks to mako adverse to
whiskey," said naval officer yesterday, "but
there is many another drink in this world to
which old rye and Kentucky bourbon is as
milk for babes. For instance, there is the
"hootchenoo of the Chilcats of southern Alas
ka Doubtless the method of distillation of
this remarkable beverage was originally sug-
gested to the Chilcats by United States SOL
diers. Any sort of vegetables made into a
mash is employed as raw material. The
mash is put in large tin can, which is con-
nected with another tin can by the tube of a
hollow vegetable stem that grows to q length
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.
81 have seen something of the way 1t oper-
ates In the course of several naval experiences
on the Alaskan coast. Very likely you have
heard of the style in which certain dwellers
in that cline celebrate their arrival at the
maximum of worldly fortune. Once in while
it OCCURS that big man finds himself In pos
session of 900, mostly in tho 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 accom-
plishment by giving festival called pot
latch,' during which he spends or distributes
in the shape of presents all that he has
gathered together in the shape of property.
incidentally, the proper drink is served ad
libitum, and the guests begin the fun with
the widest orgies, winding up at length
with q general pandemoniac celebration,
clawing and-chewing and generally trying to
destroy one another to the best of their abil-
ity."
'"And why does this drink produce such a
surprising efectw
"Well, my notion is that the awful results
of taking the stuff are in large measure attri-
butable to tts being SO new from the still.
There is apt to be In any such alcoholic bev-
erage, new made, a certain, considerable per-
centage of powerful poison known as fusil
OIL Fusil oil 10 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 slco-
hols. You can derive alcohol from anything
that is vegetable by the process Of distilation.
Take the fibre that IL made into wood pulp
and distil it-you have alcohol. Now, where
as properly seasoned whiskey Is readily di-
gested in very moderate Quantities, when new
| from the still it will set the person who
drinks It fairly crazy, ,chiefly through the op-
Grafton of the fusil oil in IL. This fusil oil ia
very volatile, and it will escape by natural
processes from liquor kept for Q time, but
while II remains IL is deadly. 1t will induce
temporary insanity offhand."
s'Has the freshness of the drink consumed
anything to do with the madness of the nat
ives who run amuck in the Malay peninsulai'
Decidedly. What the Malays drink islpop
ularly known all over eastern Asia as tarrack
the name derived from the Arabic sarrak,
signiiing 'perspiration.' It is distilled, tn
best Of Il, from the unexpanded flowers o
+; certain varieties Of palms, the resulting juic