St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-09-26
BEWARE OF GRAPES. :
New Workers in Danger OF Being
Poisoned by the Fruit.

x
Poisoned by the Fruit.
New YORK, Sept. 25.-Oficial warn.
ing was given to New Workers from the
office of the president of the board of
health to-day not to eat grapes-at least
just now-unlesS they want to be
poisoned. At noon big raid ON all the
big wholesale stores was started. Yes
terday citizen, whose name is not
given, brought several punches of Con-
cord grapes to sanitary headquarters,
asking what was the suspicious green
substance that chung to the stems of the
fruit. The grapes were sent to Actin g
Chemist Ernst Lederle'S Office for
analysis. He examined them with
some alarm, for the most casual inSpec-
ton convinced him that the green stuff
was copper OF some kind. Mr.. Lederle
went promptly to work in his labora-
tory, with his assistant, Mr.. Weeks
The first test of the green matter showed
it to be, as expected, copper.
Leaving Mr. Weeks to finish the test
| for arsenic. Mr.. Lederle fastened at
once to the presidents Office and told
| Mr.. Wilson OF his discovery and of the
| danger it Notwithstanding less than
| the possible poisoning of the town, or
| of that part Of it, at least, that eats
| grapes. Mr.. Wilson summoned SAM
| tary Superintendent Ewing and DR..
| Cyrus Edison by telephone at once. and
hurried conference was held that re-
| suited IN an order for the immediate in
| specified of all the grapes in the city,
| DIR. Lederle, Mr.. Weeks and a half
dozen policemen were told off for the
duty at once and went down to begin
| among the wholesalers. On their way,
| half stOne's-throW from sanitary
| headquarters. they seized and DESTROY
ed the Stocks of w. Ii. Becker, grocer
! at Mott and Houston streets. and of
Giuseppe Farnerila, Houston street
| grape peddler.
1t was believed by the authorities
| that the majority of the stock in the
city is tainted with copper. 1t is the
result of the efforts to destroy the
| phylIoXera that have attacked the
| grapes everywhere this year. Copper
| is used for this. Ordinarily the green
crystals are observable mainly ON the
stem, where they had been protected
from the rain by the clustering grapes.
AT O'Clock DR.. Lederle and his party
arrived at Washington market. They
| stopped at big fruit stand under the
L road station at Cortlandt and Church
streets. The up-river grapes, or those
which come from Ulster and the adj
joining counties. were found sprayed
with the green substance. The seizure
amounted to over a barrel and they
were destroyed despite the protest of j.
Fellar, their Italian owner. He was
very ugly over the raid and made so
much noise that he attracted a crowd of
fifty persons.
From there the raie was continued
along Greenwich, Washington, Barclay,
Warren, and the other streets where
wholesale fruit dealers have their head
quarters. The news of their coming
spread rapidly among the dealers, and
wherever they went crowd followed.
The next important discovery was made
at the warehouse of A. II. Crete, fruit
commission merchant. Over thrty-six
crates of up-the-river grapes were ex-
amined. They were called Marlboros
and Concords. Every crate was con-
demned, and Mr.. Crete was requested
not to dispose of them until an analysis
was made. The stems were covered
with a green substance which DR.. Led
erie said contains copper. Specimens
were taken.