The Republican journal., 1901-08-29

formerly so numerous in the hill towns
and country districts of Massachusetts,
the Boston Advertiser of Saturday
says: "The abandoned farmhouse has
now become summer cottage whose
picturesqueness delights the trained eye
Of an artist. And the farm that has
not been abandoned finds a ready and
eager customer in the summer visitor,
who will buy all the fresh vegetables
and all the new laid eggs that the farm
can produce. Blessed be the summer
visitor in the highways and byways OF
rural Massachusettsw This change is
due largely to the extension of the
trolley system. of railway transporta
ton.
That there are adulterations in prac-
tically all food products is generally
known from more or less authoritative
sources. Even the poet tells us that
all things are not what they seem; and g
large portion of the public have appar
emily resigned themselves to the in
evitable. In this connection a report
upon the exhibit at Buffalo of pure and
adulterated products by the Bureau OF
Chemistry of the Department of Agri-
culture will be found of interest. II
seems from the report that there is moth
ing in the human food line that is not
adulterated. The bureau has on view
at Buffalo vinegar bought in the open
market, that is not vinegar at all, but
diluted acetic acid, artiticially colored
and sold in large quantities as cider
vinegar in localities where food laws
are not strictly enforced. Alcoholic
liquors are adulterated very extensive
ly to give the appearance and taste of
age, and the bureau was able to pur-
chase some peach brandy essence that
is simply composition made to order
in quantities to supply the market.
Flavoring extracts and soda water
syrups, the bureau finds, are largely
adulterated. The report says that cases
of death resulting from the use of
adulterated lemon extract containing
wood spirits are of common occurrence;
but that happens mostly when people
use the adulterated extract as bever-
age. However, such a toxic article as
wood spirit is almost enough to kill
when used in cooking.
1t is some satisfaction to know that
the bureau has failed to find either sand
or clay in sugar, although it is often
charged that they are used as adulter-
ants. Once in great while sugar is
found in the market adulterated with
glucose and saccharin, but even this is
infrequent. Saccharin is five hundred
times as sweet as sugar, is made of an
artificial preparation made from coal
tar, and is said to be perfectly digesti-
ole. Instead of saying my sweetheart
or my honey, it would be in order to
say, my saccharin.
The bureau has discovered that there
is good deal of bunco about coffee.
Nobody but an expert can tell, by look
ing at coffee, whether it is high grade or
low grade. All coffee looks alike to
the layman until after it has been brew
ed. People visiting Buffalo may see
there the very highest priced coffee, un-
ground, and alongside it there is the
very cheapest berry, and nobody not an
expert can tell which is which. The
bureau believes that a great deal of the
coffee that is sold as high grade is really
of 8. low grade-the cook has to take the
blame when it comes upon the break
fast table. Then there is on exhibition
at Buffalo coffee that is not coffee at all,
but just berry made of flour, colored
with drugs. Yet this flour coffee looks
almost like the genuine high priced
coffee. Coffee is rarely adulturated-it
is either coffee of some grade or other,
or it is not coffee at ALL
Flour is not adulterated at all, thanks
to the vigorous stand taken by Ameri-
can millers, but when it comes to spices
this fine old Connecticut spirit mani
tests itself. Nutmegs and pepper and
cloves and the whole list are not what
they seem.
The bureau, thinks, however, that
about the meanest food adulterators
are the men who put drugs into pre-
served fruits to keep them. That is di-
rectly and positively harmful to health.
A long list of such drugs-phonetically
fearful at any rate-as salicylic, benzoic
and boric acids and their sodium COM
pounds, formaldehyde-with which they
adulterate milk; sulphites, ammonium
fuoride, pyroligneous acid, beta napthol
and other drugs are placed in all sorts
of preserved fruits to make them hold
their good appearance, no matter how
long they may remain canned. The
bureau believes that this practice should
be stopped.
A rather unique vessel has been anchored
in our harbOr this week. It is a house
boat built over from an old two masted
coasting schooner named the VIM. Butman.