The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-09-19
The Bowery Whiskey Test.

The battle waged by the Liquor Dealers
Association against the five-cent whiskey
saloons, or "morgues," as they are called
by some of their patrons, has ended inglo-
riously in the first round. The gentleman
who bears the official relation of chemist"
to the Board of Health. though on the
roster of that department in the division of
Food Inspection, Offensive Trade and
Mercantile Establishment" his name fol-
low that of the office boy, has. on applica-
tion, furnished a sober and sedate opinion
upon Bowery w~hiskey, so-called. The
claim of dealers who sell whiskey at ten
cents n glass or fifteen, or two glasses for n
quarter, is that Bowery whiskey is delete
rious to health; that it contains injurious
drugs and chemical substances; that it is
artificially prepared, and that, in fact. in
many cases it is not whiskey Mt all, but
raw alcohol diluted with water and favored
with vanilla, cinnamon, and other extracts,
fortified with red pepper.
DR.. LEDERLE, the chemist of the Board Of
Health, seems to be an unimaginative pub
lie functionary, inclined to put more de-
pendcnce or a chemical analysis than on
what may be called, without offence to
science, accumulated public opinion. He
deals with particles and percentages, with
elements, traces and frances, Latin terms
and algebraic processes, and his nine days
work. for it took him min days to analyze
the twenty samples of Bowery whiskey, is
a nine days wonder to all the members OF
the Retail Liquor Dealers Association. and
an occasion for surprise and delight to the
"morgue" or "deadhouse" dealers of the
Bowery.
The application of abstract scientific
rules and chemical formulas to Bowery
whiskey cannot be wholly defended on the
ordinary grounds of argument. Thcoreti.
cally, no doubt, and automatically, too,
Bowery whiskey, which contains a smaller
percentage of fusel oil than real whiskey
and u less amount of alcohol, the difference
being made up by the substitution of water.
may be less injurious to health than the
veritable Blue Grass or M~onongahela. In
fact, however, the true status of Bowery
whiskey Is not to be hXed by any such
analysis or by any scientific method what
ever. There is a simpler means of determi.
nation, which can be employed without the
formality Of acquiring such proficiency in
the knowledge of drugs as is requisite to
obtaining a professional diploma. The
patron of an ordinary liquor saloon where
ten or fifteen cont whlskey is sold Is seen to
enter such u place to drink the whiskey,
pay for 1t, and to depart to all outward mp.
pearance in the same condition of health,
spirits, sobriety and peaceableness as be.
fore. The patron of the Bowery whiskey
saloon of the fve.cent variety, some place
on or near that thoroughfare is seen to en-.
ter, call for a five.cent "hook" or "hookcr,"
drink it, pay for same, and thereafter en-.
deayor to break the furniture, II there be
any, or to commit an overt breach Of the
peace by assaulting bystanders violently,
INDUCING IN wild and incohcrent o~utcries,
and falling upon the sidewalk without
ability to resume his standing posture.
According to DR.. LEDERLE the percent
age Of fusel oil consumed by the individual
last described is 4.3 less than in the case of
the individual first referred to. The drinker
who eschews "tive,cent liquor saloons"
gets more fusel oil than does the patron of
the " morgues," but the latter gets more
peppermint, bergamot, cinnamon, red pep
per, vanilla, caramel, and prune juice.
Whether IL is these ingredients of five.
cent whiskey. It may be the vanilla, which
causes the patron to become riotous and
disorderly, common observation proves that
there Is the effect, whatever the cause. DIR.
lEDEhLE substitutes chemistry, known to
thefew, iorthls common observation within
the power of all or nearly all.
Causes are important to scientists; eff.
fects are more clearly observed by police.
men. theoretically, according to chemical
formula, the persistent and unabashed
drinker Of hve-cent Bowery whiskey is
sober; practically and actually, the patrol