The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-03-16
IT'S THE CHOCOLATE AGE
THE MEDICAL RECORD SAYSTHEEE
ARE * CHOCOLATE INEBRIATES."

hon ROUNDS OF cocoa PRODUCTS were
Consumed in America Last Year
How People Nibble Chocolate Slabs
for Lunch Until They Nibble Them
selves Into Early Graves.
From the Philadelphia Record.
This is the chocolate agel Five. million
pounds of the pulverized meat of the cocoa
bean found its way into the American stom-
ach last year, and the American stomach
suffered accordingly. Several persons died
from the effect of over-indulgence in cocoa
mixed with sugar, which is called chocolate.
Over-indulgence in the dark-brown stimu-
liant is almost unlverSal--withinf five years its
sale has increased over 1000 per cent. It's
constant use begets craving for it, and an
inability to do without it which results in a
condition of the victims system that would
appear to warrant the Prohibition party in
droppig its warfare against apple cider,
temporarily at least, and looking into the
chocolate question. Vide, the followi
which recently appeared in the Medical
Record:
CHOCOLATE INEBRIETY A chocolate inebri-
ate has appeared. His addiction has been for
three years, and his general health is much i'm
paired. principally the digestion. His only
thought night and day is how to get chocolate
The Record is one of the leading medical
journals of this country, and DIR. George f.
Shrady of this city is its editor. In the in
terest of the readers of the Sunday World
DIR. Shrady was as ed to state how long it
would take the chocolate habit to kill a man
or drive him crazy.
1.-THE paragraph to which you refer" said
| he, Twas copied from some one of our ex-
changes. have never been called upon to
| N,An a. - 81 IL
| far as know, the disease has not forced
itself on the attention of the medical pro-
fes ion at large. There is no doubt, how
| ever, that the excessive use of chocolate is
| injurious to health. Excessive indulgence
in almost any good thing is injurious to
health. Chocolate is a powerful slim
liant. Some stomachs will not digest
ally, and to the practical exclusion of other
| food. l can readily see how it might
fasten itself upon one, produce condition
| of inebriety, as other strong stimulants do,
! and no doubt hasten its victims death
| Hundreds Of deaths may be brought about
| through excessive use of chocolate without
the attention of physicians being called to
it, just as hundreds Of persons are drinking
| themselves to death ami n yer thinking of
calling in the family DOCTOR"
WORK FOR THE PULPIT.
No, very plainly, it is not the physicians
who are most interested in the chocolate
| craze. Evidently it is for preachers in their
| pulpits to denounce the caramel that lures
to death, the chocolate cream that inebri-
ates; for the legislature to enact chocolate
| high license laws, and for the Woman's
| Christian Temperance Union to organize
| brown-ribbon societies. whose mission it
shall be to circulate pledges wherein the
signers shall bind themselves to forever alb
| jure and eschew the little brown slab that
| tickles the palate and damns the soul. 1t is
cay to foresee within another five years
the passage of a chocolate Sunday law, and
to behold with the minds eve, professions
| of back-door customers fracturing the
statute, not for forbidden Sunday grog, but
| for the prohibited Sunday pocketful of
| chocolate bonbons.
In this city there are well authenticated
instances of chocolate inebriety. Every re-
taller of confectionery and nearly every
| druggist has them in mind as often as he
fills an order for the Sc iuctive little brown
| slabs. Here are some remarks of an en-
ploye of a popular establishment located
not great way from the Pulitzer building
"If you want to count dozen chocolate
fiends in half day." said he, ''come and
stand behind the counter. The. price of
bread is bound to come down. Before loue
sirloin steak will be drug on the market al
coming history. Chocolate is the thing. II
is a great economizer of time and labor
chocolate is. You can work and eat at the
same time. While you are dressing in the
morning drink a cup of chocolate. When
you start downtown to business put cake
of the stuff in your pocket, and when"--
AN INDUCING CUSTOMER.
Here the employe was interrupted by q
customer. 1t was man Of middle age
spare, nervous, bright of eye, but with the
complexion of an Indian. The customer
said nothing, but walked straight toward
| a certain glass covered case, which the en-
ploye, also saying nothing, opened and pro-
duced thence box of chocolate cakes, each
neatly wrapped in paper bearing the name
of well-known manufacturer Of cocoa
products. Two of these the brown-skinped
customer placed in the right-hand side
pocket off his sack coat, paid his tickets al
the cas- ier's desk and walked out.
Follow him couple of squares" whis-
pered the employe. eagerly. HE is King
of the Fiends. Bet you one of those cakes
is unwrapped before he gets to the city
hall.n
The employe proved to be true prophet
| The king Of the Fiends" walked rapidly
toward Chamber street with his hand in his
side pocket. When deposited the registers
office the hand came out and with it a cor
|
chocolate cakes. This he nibbled furtively
until he was lost to sight in the Stewart
building. 1t was l o'clock p. N. Further
inquiry revealed that corner broken from
a cake of chocolate was all the lunch this
man ever took.
Uptown in the confectionery stores il
was discovered that no less than so per cent
of all the candies displayed were either
pure chocolate, or creams incased in choco
late, or mixtures Of chocolate and Other
su distances commonly entering into the
manufacture of sweetmeats.
ANOTHER VIEW.
"Too much chocolate injurious?" said e
Broadway confectioner in apparent sur
prise. Far from it. If it be manufac-
tured from pure cocoa it il the safest thing
YOU can put into candy. But If you buy
your candy at the street stands. look out. ,
1t had been observed that most street
stand stocks appeared to con ain even more
chocolate than those of tho fashionable up
town shops, so the question was asked:
"Do you mean that the dark-brown stuff
sold on the streets is not chocolate at alla"
at is partly chocolate" was the answer
''but mostly Johaunesbrode-a German
product manufactured from a vegetable
pulp that will mingle easily with sugar but
will not digest at all"
Right here let it be suggested to the pro-
hibition party and the w. G. T. U. that be-
, fore they take active measures in the prem