Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1894-07-07
TRICKS IN TEAS.
WAYS THAT ARE DARK OF THE
HEATHEN CHlNEE.
Very Slick Is He, But Not Always Sue
cessful, in Adulteratink Teas Sent
to America - 60 600 Pack
ages Condemned d In One Lot.

erage, you find dark paste-like |
sediment, charge it mp to the ways
that are dark of "the heather Chinee."
The sediment is mud--piain, every
day, Chinese blue mud, and it was put
there by your Celestial with intent to
defraud the purchaser of the crop.
Perhaps there is no sediment, but
that does not argue that you have es-
capped Johns wiles. If the tea is Bit
ter and rank to the taste, it is because
that with the leaves of the tea plant
there have been mixed all the way
from twenty to sixty per cent. of the
leaves of q willow, or Of plant that
is known as the sloe, both of which
grow wherever tea is grown, just as
cheat or tares grow alongside Of wheat.
Again, if your tea is neither muddy
nor rank, but is weak and without
either flavor or fragra nee, it is be-
cause the leaves have already done
full duty in some PARKWAY tea-house.
havo been gathered up from the
kitchens, re-dried and then colored
with Prussian blue and soapstone and
shipped to dear, gullible America.
The adulteration of tea and the sub
! stitution Of spurious and exhausted
| leaves is a mammoth and monstrous
evil. To such proportions had it
| grown that in November, 1888. Con-
| gress passed an act for the protection
Of importers and created the Office of
Tea Inspector in connection with the
| Custom Houses in New York, Chicago
and San Francisco. Tea is admitted
free of duty. but not one chest of it
can be landed until the inspector GER
tifies that it is free of adulteration or
spurious substitutes.
When New York World reporter
called at the United States Appraisers
great work house, on Laight and Hud-
son streets, recently, Isaac McGay,
the inspector for the Port of New
York, sat before circular table, upon
which were placed in neat array a
dozen dainty china cups and saucers,
each of which was filled nearly to fhe
brim with the infusions which he had
but recently made. bright copper
kettle steamed cheerily Mt his elbow.
Mr.. McGay had just completed task,
and he leaned back in his tilted arm
chair with an amused smile upon his
CHEEKY and ruddy countenance.
"You have come In good time" he
said to the reporter, who asked for
some information about Government
tea inspection. ''These cups repre-
sent samples from cargo OF 60. 900
packages of tea, every pound Of which
has got to go back.
''To China"
II can't answer that question.
Maybe to Canada or England, but it
cannot come through the Port of New
York. That is great deal of tea to
condemn, but that is what / am here
for / do not believe that within the
twelve years l have been In this de-
partment, during the last four OF
which l have been the inspector, ]
have ever examined n shipment in
which all the elements Of fraud were
SO unblushingly combined. In the
6rst place, forty per cent. OF the
weight OF this te. is dirt NEAR
common earth that costs only tn
price OF the labor involved 10 dig IT.
This earth, 2ronni TO an impalp
able powder. - mixed with q past
made OF rice water AMI known a. con
| gee. This is adroitIy done, the past.
uniting the particles OF dir: into ia.
periec: sem blsncs u small, curIei tel
leaves A. the tea proper is berg
packed into the chest. ~orsma,
stands By with the cong.e and cA.ta ,
/ with sweeping motion % the haa
II thin layers into :ne box
TN . cargo o: 81. oo1 chests Of tea
each weighing sixty pounds, o. q to.s
OF $500. 90 pounds. MISTER .. / :,
44o. o00 pounds .. mud. paid for a
tea isau,;e little item i: the schsn
goes through
:. ia this instance l hare 10 do,b
waa,ever o. 3 carefully planned raul
70. tie firm which ez ported this carg,
stands very high n china aai has 20
!, years been considered beyond -
1proach. ] have never hAi occ.4.ol