The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-01-05
NOT WHAT THEY SEEM.
Delicacies That Are Bogus I'm whole
or in Part.
From the Philadelphia Times.

From the Philadelphia Times.
The government has long been doing
quality and quantity of work admirable
to the highest degree of the examination
of every kind of food and drink imported
as well as Of many kinds produced at
home; the suppression. confiscation or de-
struction of unwholesome and injurious
goods, and the punishment of Offenders.
The government employs a score Of skill
full chemists. who are attached to the
custom houses of leading ports of entry.
Second in Importance is the national
board of health. The third machine con-
sists of the state boards of health The
dishonest merchant and manufacturer are
men of brains and rely upon science to
increase their profits. Under various pre-
texts, they retain great saVants to solve
chemical and technical questions, whose
solution means new WaV of decei,finey
the public. In the tea trade. for Instance
black tea has been found to be adulter-
ated with sloe and other leaves. and green
Yea 70 De weighted with impurities and
coIored with copper salts. When the Sov-
eminent declared war on both frauds
they dwindled away immediately AS
cheap teas remained as universal other
investigation was made, resulting in the
discovery that over twenty domestic con-
cehns were buying spent and damaged
tea leaVes, recurring and recoloring them
ana then selling them as d irst-ciass ar
ucle. Within a few years pure pepDer
was the rule and impure the exceDtion
Foreign dealers began to adulterate their
goods until the condition of affairs was
reversed; The government finally took
nand IN 1t, and the bogus pepper business
forthwith began to decline
An analySis by the Massachusetts
BOARD a health showed that several lead
ing dsAlers in cocoanuts We're increasins
their profits by pulverizing broken cocoa
nut nut snels and mixing with ground pep
per. When the attention of the authori-
Ues was called to this swindle the general
Quality of ground pepper all over the
country took a sudden rise. Trade price
nsts mad hardly reached Europe when
some enterprising French and Italian
manufacturers began to send huge bags
81 RolVfette, a compound made by
grinding up almond shells, olive stones.
cherry twigs and other Iigneous fibres
naVored with few drops of pepper ex-
tract When the wholesale grocers and
spice dealers found out about "poivrette''
the loudest denunciations of the new
auulterant 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 officials no.
tlced a sudden falling off in the imports
OF the latter and an immense increase in
the former. To the eye and judged by
ordinary standards the stuff seemed the
poorest ana impureSt raw sugar import
ed The chemists in a short time demon
Suated that the raw sugar had been re-
lined Ia the West Indies and then. to
make the tariff light had been mixed
with fine clay until it looked like mud
II only needed to he dissolved in water
filtered, boiled down. and then ii was as
duced
In examining what was sold all through
New England as powdered cinnamon
Massachusetts chemists were amazed to
find that it did not contain a particle ~
that bark. and they could not discover a
trace of the substance with which now
dercd cinnamon is usually adulterated
Finally in the red powder thew foilnd
something green, which turned out to be
a fragment of an internal revenue stamp
such as is used for tobacco. This gave the
clue and enabled them to show that the
mysterious stuff was old cigar boxes
dried snd ground up and favored with a
few DROPS Of essential oil. The authorities