The morning call., 1892-05-12
CREEKED UP TO Make IT SELL.
The COIOred Powder Is Analyzed by
Thomas Price.
It Contains FerrO.CyaRide PrHSSiaR Blue,
ARiIine Blue and ARiline
Green.

chalk, ferro-cyaItide (PrUssian bIWe), dniline
green aud aItiIine blite."'
Thus wrote Thomas Price s. Son from
their chemical laboratory on Sacramento
street yesterday to THE CALL.
''FeIro-cvauide, or cyanogen, Is in reality
the double cyanide Of iron ana potassium.
"Prussic acid is extracted during its manu-
facture
''Arsenic-iS an ingredient in the manu-
facture of aniline. Any anilIne. blue OF
green, is likely to contain arsenic"
This was supplemented information not
contained in the Prices certificate.
But take If straight, just as it stands-ear-
Donate of lime, French chalk, cyanide of
iron Prussian blue, aniline green and AMI
line blue.
Mix it up in hot water. Put cream and
sugar in it. Drink it down while you read
your MORNING CALL.
A nice drink, isn't it2
Hundreds yes thousands, OF people drink
it every morning.
Then some Of them feel sick. Perhaps
they 60 to bed.
"GastTilis," says the doctor.
He writes a prescription. If he knew
what kind Of poison was at work in his
patients interior he might give him plain
antid9te for it. But he does not. lie gives
him Latin prescription.
Perhaps the patient gets well; perhaps he
dies.
1t was ''yery grave case Of stomach
trouble, with distressing complications" in
the latter event.
The man is hurled.
But his family goes on drinking the Prus-
Sian blue, aniline green and aniline blue just
the same.
The grocer sells them fine Costa Rica
coffee that grew ia San Salvador, spoiled in
the growing and was sent to San Francisco
to sell for what it would bring
"Green it up" was the order given to the
''cofTee-polisher," 'and makeit look as nice
as you can"
The "pOlisher" took it in hand. He put
it in his greening machine and took his mix
ture Of double cyanide of iron and p0tas-
stun PTussisn blue, carbonate of lime
Rnilne green, French chalk, aniline blue,
in which there may or may not have been
arsenic or prussic acid, or both, and he tire Y
scoopful after scoopful of the poisonous
material into the big drum in which the
coffee whirled and whirled.
Mind you. it went into the machine in all
sorts Of colors. mostly pale yellow and dirty
yellow.
1t came out green.
Well, the ''polisher" did his work well.
Green the eOffee-dealer wanted and green
be got.
Green coloring matter may be all very well
In green house painting, in advertising
signs or in potato vines TO kill of potato
bugs.
People object to green in wall paper.
Many viii not buy it because it exhales
poison.
They viii not eat candy with particle Of
green on it.
But they drink green stuff in their coffee.
There is grave danger in using such a
mixture in coffee said Professor Price yes
terday.
"Why SOP" was asked.
"WeH you see, no one can tell what the
result Of the heating, grinding and boiling
may be. OF course. it causes the dec0mpo-
sition OF the green mixture. Now this de-
composition may produce cyanide Of pCtas-
stun in sufficient quantity to cause death.
If people have reason to believe that they
are using this kind Of coffee, they ought to
stop using 1t right away"
Then yOu think il IS unsafe, professor"
81 don't think i'll know it."
how about the aniline coloIing-is that
dangerous TO eat2"
The professor smiled.
''Well, l wouldn't want 20 eat very much
Of it. French chemists say Il is poisonous.
In France the use OF aniline cOlOring matter
in foods is prohibited by law. They used
TO put a good deal of 1t into wines to make
them look nice. 1t is against the law now.
We need a law Of that kind in this country
Why IL looks as il a man could 20 on
doping up all sorts Of food with poisonous
cOlOring compounds, and do so with perfect
impunity. The thing ought to be stopped"
Greening is not all the deception that is
pTacticed by the coffee-pOlishers.
They make fTst-class Mocha and Java
coffees from the poorest San Salvador.
How do they do It?
By running tie cheap trash through q
machine.
You can do almost anything with machin-
cry nowadays.
4 man needs machine stomach. though.
to digest the double cyanide of potassium
and iron (Prussian blue, French chalk
aniline green, carbonate CT lime and anllne
blue.
But about the Mochas and Javas. They
are made by running the coffee through a
separator, whose main feature is an endless
bolt OF cloth, so set as to permit the round
berries Of the San Salvador coffee to roll of
into a receiver al one side. The round ber-
RES are MOchas and Jayas. The fat Der
lies do not roll OF. They stay on the cloth
and pass along through another separating
device, which takes the big Whole berrie:
away from the small and broken ones. The
large berries are Costa Rica The rest oil
the stuff that is left-the trash-is roasted
and ground up, to be sold under any sort oil
label the dealers may want to place on it
This manipulation Of the cheap coffee
together with the greenlng shows why sc
little really good coffee is sold here.
a grocer who can sell fake" Java and
Mocha for or 10 cents pound lower than
he can buy real Java and Mocha has the
bulge in the trade. His competitor, nc
matter how honest he may be, cannot sell
straight coffees.
Your prices are too high" all the con-
sumers will say to him.
But they do not know until they have
read The CALL what they are getting when
they buy loW-priced coffee.
Remember this. too that the cheap trash
greened for the trade with the ferro-eyanidt
(Prussian blue, aniline blue, carbonate oil
lime, French chalk and aniline green in it.
sells at fictitious prices.
II must be so.
Greening it costs % cents bag.
man has 10 get that much back anyway
And, then, as he has a fne-looking greer
coffee, as green as any coffee need 10 be, h
can sell 1t for much greater advance thar
the cost Of grePning.
Greening coffee is profitable business.
One man Ia this city IS growing rich at it
The green mixture doesn't cost much II
Imported here by the cargo and used by thI
barrel
In bulk the compound used-which is il
the form OF powders q dark green
turns blush green in the water. on ac
count Of the presence of the Prussian blu,
(ferrO-cyanidel but when it preeipitates It