Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1900-08-03
NOT WHAT THEY SEEM
BUTTERCuP'S MUSICAL STATE.
MENT AMPLY CONFIRMED.
Adulteration of Food in This Country
and Europe Has Become So General
that an Absolutely Pure Article Is
Exceedingly Hard to Find.


Exceedingly Hard to Find.
How Important pure food is to health
cannot be determined with a gertrude
and had best be left to the Imagination
and the pure foods advertisements.
There will be but few disputants OF the
statement that there can be no overes-
1mation. That pure food is distress
July and gradually and pcs tive'y grow
Ing less every year cannot be success
fully contended in argument Keen
commercial competition and the failure
of the supply to equalize the demand
for pure foods are responsible in
measure for the debasement of that
which is eaten for nourishment. In
scrupulous persons with only an eye
for the profits are engaged in the adul-
teration of food the world over. In the
United States we know that nearly all
that is fed upon is not what it is rep
resented to be, but there is no alterna-
tive. Take that or take nothing seems
to be the ground hog case in which the
subsisting people find themselves.
But the United States is not the only
place where food adulteration is prac-
ticed. Our consuls have been to some
pains 10 discover the counterfeiting of
food in Europe, and as much of that
which Is counterfeited is disposed of in
this country we are the sharers in the
misery.
The information that European wines,
liquors and beer are villainously doc
tored, despite the careful governmental
control of the production, is not new.
So hong as the aroma and stimulating
qualities are preserved the public does
not seem to care. The adulteration of
liquid food is as fragrant and upon the
same basis. If the counterfeit can be
made to please the taste and to satisfy
the eye and the olfactory organs the
consumers do not seem to raise any
particular objection to the deception
that is practiced.
Chocolate and cocoa are favorite
beverages in this country and received
from Europe, where there Is said to
exist splendid plants for skillful adul-
teration. The ingredients that are con-
sumed disguised as chocolate and cocoa
are mutton tallow, the cheapest grades
of sugar, shells of the cocoa bean, po-
tato meal and sawdust, to which very
inviting mixture has been added ochres
containing the proper colOrs.
One Of our consuls says: "If all of
/ fhn cnhStanpna that thrpIuh a
coffee grinding machine during the
year should be written in alphabetical
order, A would begin the list with
acorns and w would end it with worm
wood, sprouts of which are sometimes
used to give the debased coffee a slight
aromatic, bitter taste" There is no
concern as to the effect of this hetero-
geneous mass upon the coffee-grinding
machines. They are able to stand it
without protest. In Europe they do not
produce coffee by the primitive methods
of coaXing and cultivating the soil to
produce it for them. There factories
are built and with modern machinery
an admiXture of tanbark, stove rust,
clay, sawdust, chicory, coffee sedi-
ments and some agglutinant is nodded
into coffee beans of deceptive flavor and
destructive elements, and produced in
such quantities as assures the mainte
nance of equilibrium between supply
and demand.
The debasement of tea Is another
1ourishing industry. Most any old kind
of leaves except tea leaves will do and
parity because they are easily obtained
and partly because the trick can be
more successfully worked with linden,
sage and berry leaves they are the ia
vorite ones used for substitution.
1t would be heartless to continue all
through the lists of the solid foods and
the many and mysterious things Of
which they are composed. The liquids
are sufficient, but before disposing Of
the liquids attention is called to the di-
luton of milk with water and the con-
cealment of the deception by adding
soap They have pure food laws in
Europe, too, but exclusively for orna-
mental purposes.-Ci Times
Star.