The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-03-18
MAKE-BELIEVE FOOD.
Adulterants Now Include Pulver.
lied Cigar Boxes
Hardly Anything That We Eat Is Abso,
luteIy Pure-Wines and Liquors Are
Also Doctored to Increase the
Merchants Profits.

An analysis by the Massachusetts
board of health showed that several
leading dealers in cocoanut were in,
creasing their profits by pulverizing
broken cocoanut shells and mixing with
ground pepper. When the attention OF
the authorities was called to this swim,
Gle the general quality of ground pep
per all over the country took q sudden
rise. Trade price lists had hardly
reached Europe when some enterpris-
ing French and Italian manufacturers
began to send huge bags of 'poivrette,
a compound made by grinding up al
mond shells, olive stones, cherry twigS
and other ligneous fibers, favored with
a few drops Of pepper extract. Wher
the wholesale grocers and spice dealers
found out about ''poivrette" the loud.
est denunciaticns of the new adulter
ant came from the lips of the worthy
cocoanut shell grinders.
At one time, when the sugar duty de
pended upon the color of the article, be
ing lowest upon the raw, dark brown
and highest upon pure white, the OFF,
Gals noticed a sudden falling of in the
imports of the latter and an immense in.
crease in the former. To the eye and
Judged by ordinary standards the stuff
seemed the poorest and impurest raw
sugar imported. The chemists in 6
short time demonstrated that the raw
sugar had been refined in the west
Indies, and then, TO make the tariff
light, had been mixed with fine clay I'M
til il looked like mud. It only needed &c
be dissolved in water, filtered, boiled
down, and then it was as pure and white
a sugar as can be produced.
In examining what was sold al
through New England as powdered Gin
namon. Massachusetts, chemists were
amazed to find that it did not
contain a particle of that bark,
and they could not discover
a trace of the substance with which
powdered cinnamon is usually adul.
terated. Finally, in the red powder
they found something green, which
turned out to be a fragment of an in.
ternal revenue stamp, such as is used
for tobacco. This gave the clew, and en-.
abled them to show that the mysterious
stuff was old cigar boxes, dried and
ground up and favored with a few
drops of essential oil. The authorities
not only published the discovery forth
with, but attacked the brand so vigor.
ously that in the next month all in the
market had been confscated or de.
stroyed.
In Boston n man has machine which
takes the favorite food of that city,
splits each bean into two grains, chan
nels and finishes these so much like
coffee that when roasted they deceive
the average grocer. In Chicago another
commercial crook has machine which
makes a roast coffee bean out of coarse
and damaged wheat -four. The dies
which cut out the grains are so well
contrived that out of 200 no two are
alike.
Sophisticated wines and liquors were
formerly very common. One house in
Hamburg and one in Bremen not very
long ago did large business with the
United States. They were quite honest
in their dishonesty. and spared the gov
eminent by announcing in their bills
OF lading that their champagne was
"carbonated goosebery," their old
cognac favored with potato spirit"
or industrial alcohol" and their Ben.
edictine medicinal cordial" They left
the lying to the American customers
knowing, probably, that the new world
is far superior in this regard to the old
world.
In spite of the cheapness and whole
someness of American wines, the off,
cials occasionally run down people who
make a scant livelihood by compound
ing poor limitations. The New York
board of health, for example, found a
vineyard" in the cellar of an old ware
house in the heart of the business CEN
ter. 1t consisted of a lot of old ho.7s-
heads, in which the proprietor was
fermenting damaged raisins and de-
cayed currants. The resulting wine,
after being filtered and fortified, was
then altogether vile. The officers threw
several gallons into the sewer and ar
rested the vintDer. His defense was
novel, if not ludicrous. He said: al
am gentleman and Christian That
wine may not seem good, but it is
splendid. And I wish il distinctly un-
derstood that it is respectable. because
sell it to 1000 churches for oommun-
ion wine"
In the manufacture of jellies. confec-
tionery and bonbons the soul of adul-
teratiOn runs riot. A cheap crab-apple
Jelly, made in New York, but sold by
the trade, generally consists Of water,
glucose, burned sugar, cider vinegar,
oil of vitrol and vegetable gelatine. |
1t is sold as cheap as five cents glass, !
and is said to cost less than three cents, |
the lumber included. Of the Turkish |
fig paste, Arabian delight and jujube
paste. much of which was once and all /
of which is still believed TO be imported, !
nearly every ounce is made in the great 4
cities of the country.
or 200 brands Of chocolate. plain OF
confectionery, examined officially, not 4
20 are pure Sugar. starch, glucose.
terra alba barytes, brown ochre, clay,
Venetian brown and other adulterz- 4
tons are added 20 il. until in some cases
there Is not more than IS per cent OF .
the genuine article IN what - offered
under its name. Some years ego. IN
the factory OF one of the largest
makers IN this country, the board OF
health found a ton Of Venetian brown
IN the work room, with the workuen
busy mixing IL IN the machines with
the cbOcolate--Philadelphia TiInes.