The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1896-07-17
MAKE-BELIEVE FOOD.
Adulterants Now Include Pulver-
lied Cigar Boxes.

Hardly Anything That We Eat Is Abso-
IutsIy 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
Ole the general quality of ground pep
per all over the country took q sudden
rise. Trade price lists had hardly
reached Europe when some enteTpris-
ing French and Italian manufacturers
began to send huge bags of 'poivrette,' >
compound made by grinding up al
mond shells, olive stones, cherry twigs
and other ligneous fibers, favored with
few drops of pepper extract. When
the wholesale grocers and spice dealers;
found out about 'poivrette" the loud
est denunciations 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 OIL
cials noticed sudden falling off in the
imports of the latter and On immense in
crease in the former. To the eye and
judged by ordinary standards the stuff
seemed the poorest and impurest raw
sngar imported. The chemists in q
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 un-
til it looked like mud. 1t only needed to
be dissolved in water, filtered, boiled
down, and then 1t was as pure and white
sugar as can be produced.
In examining what was sold all
through New England as powdered Gin
namon, Massachusetts, chemists were
amazed to find that it did not
contain q particle of that bark,
andt 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 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 q few
drops of essential oil. The authorities
not only published the discovery forth
x,srr
ously that in the next month all in the
market had been confiscated or de-
stroyed.
In Boston a 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 q 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
ernment by announcing in their bills
of lading that their champagne was
"carbonated gooseberry," 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 scant livelihood by compound
ing poor limitations. The New York
board of health, for example, found
vineyard" in the cellar of an old ware
house in the heart of the business CEN
ter. 1t consisted of lot of old hogs-
heads, in which the proprietor was
fermentipg 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 an
rested the vintner. His defense was
novel, if not ludicrous. He said: 81
am gentleman and Christian. That
wine may not seem good, but 1t is
splendid. And 1 wish it distinctly un-
derstood that it is respectable, because
sell it to 1000 churches for commun-
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 q glass,
and is said to cost less than three cents,
the tumbler 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
manufacturing cities of the country.
Of 200 brands of chocolate, plain or
confectionery, examined officially, not
20 are pure. Sugar, starch, glucose,
terra alba, barytes, brown ochre, clay,
Venetian brown and other adultera-
tions are added to it, until in some cases
there is not more than IS per cent of
the genuine article in what is offered
under its name Some years ago, in