Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-04-27
{ Sofe. sweetsan plsia ed piegles
,Iivsss DInaf Sick an st the
Fort Worth Grocer Co -
HARD DRINKS AND no MISTAKES.
Suicide and Murder In the Bowls That Hold
Various National Tipples.
WASHINGTON Star


HPsoplc have remarks to make ad-
verse to whisky, =" said a naval officer
"but there is many another
drink in this world to which old rye and |
Kentucky bourbon is az milk for babes.
For instance, there is the 'hoOtchenoo'
of the Chilcats of Southern Alaska. !
Doubtless the method of distillation of |
this remarkable beverage was originally !
suggested to the ChIlcats by United states |
soldiers. ANY sort of vegetables made |
into mash is employed as raw mate
rial. The mash is put in large tin
can which is connected with another tin
can by the tube OF a hollow vegetable
stem that grows to a length Of many feet
in those regions. A 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.
~ have seen something of the way 1t
operated in the course of several naval
experiences on the Alaskan coast. Very
likely you have heard of the style in
which cetarin jewellers in that CLINE cele-
brate their arrival at the maximum of
worldly fortune. Once in while 1t
occurs that big man finds himself in
possesson of $40 900, 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
q festival called pot latch, during
which he spends or distributes IN tue
shape Of presents all that he has gath
cred together in the shape of property.
1TiYl is
ad libitum, and the guests begin the fun
with the widest orgies, winding up at
length with q general pandemoniac cele'
bration. clawing and chewing and gen.
orally trying to destroy one another to
the best of their ability.
land why does this drink produce
such a surprising efect?''
''Well, my notion is that the awful
results of taking the stuff are in large
measure attributable to its being so new
! from the still. There is apt to be ii any
such alcoholic beverage, new made,
certain, considerable percentage OF q
| powerful poison known as fusel oil.
! Fusel oil Is an alcohol. People suppose
when they speak of alcohol that it Is al
| ways one thing aud one only, but as
matter of fact there are really dozen
| different alcohols. You can derive alco-
hol from anything that is vegetable by
the process of distilatiOn. Take the hber
that is made into wood pulp and dIstil II
Won have alcohol Now, whereas
properly seasoned whisky 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 operation of the fusei oil IN
| it. This fusel oil is very volatile, and it
will escape by natural processes from
Iiuuor kept for a time, but while it re-
| mains it is deadly. 1t will induce tenn
porary insanity offhand.
s'Has the freshness of the drink con-
| sumed 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 'arrack, slgnifng 'perspTa-
ton It 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 g. certain strong drink. This
teddy is simply fermented and the re-
sulting huuor drunk. A vile kind of
arrack is made from impure molasses
that is left over as refuse in the manu-
facture of raw sugar, rice being fer
mented with IL and a percentage of toddy
added. Under the influence of this
baIeful intoxicant l have known whole
parties of the Malsys to run amucH
together, the sport only concluding with
the death of all the participants as well
as the destruction of numbers of people.
This. you know is the favorlte Malay
plan of committing suicide. good
for-nothing fellow makes up his mind
| that he wants to die, and so he fills him
self I'D with raw arrack and starts to run
amuck, stabbing every one that comes IL
his way until he himself Is slain. Gooc
aIrack from palm toddy is not objection
able. The destructiveness of the inferior
stuff, 1 imagine, is mainly due to II
being consumed before its more poison
Gus properties have been eliminated b!
seasoning. 1t is the same way will
'pisco.
HAnd what is that?
cit is the distilled juice of certain
sort of white grapes, somewhat resem
bling the Malaga variety, which grow
mostly IN the ueighborhood of Pisco, oil
the coast of Peru. The brandy-fo
;, such ofcourse il is-thus made Is drunl
raw from the still, and it sets the mel
who drink it fairly mad. Usually the.
, become murderously inclined. In tn
!. same way Mexicans who get drunk Of
the liquor distilled from the cactus roo
and known as 'mescal, and becom
, horribly fierce and are ready TO pluug
: their knives into the most inoffensiv
. people they encounter. The rawness
the beverage is mainly responsible TO
! this symptom, l am convinced. L hav
known the crew of the ship on the Alask
coast, which was out of grog, TO buy u
+. a considerable stock of Jamaica ginge
= discovered in grocery shop, and havin
: drank it TO fall upon one another wis
knives and axes. There is good sol
/. of pisco known as Italia, which is nc
= distilled from grape skins and has ha
= laiase to season. t
: ssfaEan every night stimglsf tn