The Meeker herald., 1897-02-27
MAKE-BELIEVE FOOD.
Adulterants Now Include Pulvsr-
ICED Cigar Boxsa
Hardly Anything That We KAs 10 Ahso-
luteIy Purc-winss and Lisosss Afs
Also Doctored to Increase tho
MsrehAnt's PrOAts.

| hoard of health showed that several
leading dealers in cocoanut were In
crea.ing their profits by pulverizing
broken cocoanut shells and mixing with
ground pepper. When the attention Of
the authorities WIS called to this swim
die the general quality Of ground pep
per all over the country took . sudden
rise. Trade price lists bad hardly
reached Europe when some entespris-
| ing French and Italian manufactuRers
began to send huge bags Of "poivrette,'
a compound made by grinding up al
mopd shells, olive stones, cherry twigs
and other ligneous fbers, favored with
n few drops of pepper extract. When
the wholesale grocers and spice dealers
found out about "poivrette" the loud
est denuncintions of the new adulter-
ant came from the lips OF the worthy
cocoanut shell grinden.
At one time, when the sugar dptT de-
pended upon the color of the articie, be-
ing lowest upon the raw, dark brown,
and highest upon pure white. the off
cials noticed sudden falling cn ir the
imports of the latter and an imneDse 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 o
short time demonstrated that the raw
sugar had been refined in the west
Indies. and then, to make the tArih
light, had been mixed with fine clay n-
til it looked like mud. 1t only neededt TO
be dissolved in wGter, filtered, boiku
down, and then it was as pure and whte
sugar as can be produced.
In examining what was sold VI
through New England rs powdered e b.
nainon, Massachusetts chemists wSe
amazed to find that it did 1bt
contain particle of that baP,
and they could not dixcofr
a trace of the substance with whfh
powdered cinnamon is usually adtl-
terated. Finally, in the red powdF,
they found something green, wh3h
turned out to be a fragment OF an b.
ternal revenue stamp. such MS is usfd
sor tobacco. This gave the clew, and e3-
abIed them to show that the mysteriots
stuff was old cignr boxes, dried a11
| ground up and favored with fdE
| drops of essential oil. The authoritis
not only published the discovery FORT
with, but attacked the brand so vig4-
ously that in the next month all in t&e
market had been confscated or d.
stroyed.
| In Boston man has machine whic3
takes the favorite food OF that city
splits each bean into two grains. char
ncls and finishes these SO much lila
coffee that when roasted they deceiS
the average grocer. In Chicago anrtber
| commercial crook has a machine 1hieh
makes roast coffee beam out OF c$a.se
and damaged wheat flour. The dies
which cut out the grains are 70 we'll
eontrived that out of 200 no two re
alike.
Sophisticated wines and liquors wee
formerly very common. One house n
Hamburg and one in Bremen not very
long ago did n large business with tie
United States. They were quite honest
in their dishonesty. and spared the gov
eminent by announcing in their bills
of lading that their chanpagpe was
"carbonuted 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,
J knowing. probably, that the newworld
is far superior in this regard to the old
world. aeT
In spite of the chcapneas and whole
someness of American wines, the off,
ciLs 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
ter. 1t consisted of a lot of old ho,s-
heads, in which the proprietor was
fermenting damaged raisins and de-
cayed currnnts. The resulting wine,
after being filtered and fortified. was
then altogether vile. The officers threw
several gallons into the sewer and ar-
rested the vintner. His defense was
novel, If not ludicrouA. He said: "I
am gentleman and q Christian. That
wine may not seem good. but IL y
splendid. And wish it distinctly un-
derstood that it il respectable, bec4nse
I sell it to 1000 churches for commun-
ion wine"
In the manufacture Of jellies, confcc-
tionery and bonbons the soul OF adul-
terra ation 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 g3aas,
and is said to cost less than three cents,
the tumbler included. OF the Turkish
fig paste, Arabian delight and 3ujube
paste, much Of which was once snd all
Of which is still believed to be imported.
nearly every ounce is made in the great
manufacturing cities of the couutry.
OF 200 brands Of chocolate, plain o.
confectionery, examined officially, not
20 are pure. Sugar, starch, glucose.
terra alba barytes, brown ochre, clay.
Venetian brown and other aduatefa-
tions are added to 1t, until in some cases
there is not more than IS per cent OF
the genuine article in what Is offered