Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-02-08
"A DEFENSE LEAGUE
Human Life Threatened by Bad
Milk.
FRAUDS DISCOVERED EVERYWHERE
Each Handler of the Product Re-
duces Its Purity.
P A r l SIANS ROUSE D
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star

against all food adultrations in general and
against the adulteration of milk in partic-
ular. 1t began with a single newspapers
solitary cry of warning. Within three days
two Independent campaigns, aided by the
whole Partisan press, were under way; the
league was organized with savants, states
men. business men. lawyers. doctors, drug
gists and literary men Of the highest repu-
tation Fastening to join it. and all Paris
was talking about the fraudulent milk and
the way to free the capital Of it.
There is not a single person in Paris
who can be certain that he is drinking
pure milk says F. 1. Mouthon, one Of the
investigators; mot the well-to-do consumer
who pays twelve cents litre Quart for
the lead seal of the great milk company,
not even the rich consumer who pays
twenty cents a litre for the illusory guar
antee Of certain enterprises whose pres
tige Is semi-officia1. These latter (the ref
erence is to the Jardin d'Aclimatations
dairy hand out daily to the public credul-
ity the quadruple Of their normal produc-
ton, so that If they do not possess miracu-
lous cows among their other curiosities
their liquid is the liquid of commerce with
fourteen cents added for the SEAL
The Municipal Laboratory, accused Of
culpable negligence, declares that 1T has
not a sufficient force to deal with the gil
gantic fraud. In place Of the 100 men
have, need 1900" says NJ. Girard. who
OF these 100, seventy-five are chemists.
I'm dairy centers like Meaux, Pontoise
and Melun there exist companies who send
to Paris, every morning fifty cars Of milk"
says NJ. Grard. THE first fraud is COM
mitted by the farmer who skins enough
of the richest milk from the top-where
the cream is already forming-to feed his
weakly calves. He replaces it with water.
At the depots Of the companies second
Justification takes place. and the big cans.
duly sealed, start for Paris.
''At the Paris station the milk wagon
men cgarcons laiters) are waiting for
them The worst fraud of all now takes
place, because the milk wagon men are
forced to use Seine water, hydrant water
or water from public fountains full OF
filth and microbes. Now, when the local
Paris retailer adds his stealing and adul-
teration, you can imagine what kind Of a
liquid they give to the Paris public"
Only a Fresh Cork.
But" the average Partisan has been
saying, in kind Of wonderment, 1.-The
milk Is always in quart bottles. always
sealed with lead sealI''
'It all arrives in Paris in large cans" Is
the reply. 1.-The putting into quart bottles
is done at the retailers. The only differ
ence is that you have been paying few
cents more for the pleasure Of having
specially sealed cork!' The average Paris
ian never knew this.
OF all these adulterators, the "garcon
latter" or milk wagon man, Is the most
terrible. and he is Just now the most
There are 800 Of these 'garcons laitiers'
in Paris" says the director Of the munich
pal laboratory, "and they form vast syn
dictate expressly organized to sustain their
frauds. In theory they are only ordinary
employees, the milk companies paying them
but s1.40 e francs) per night. But as the
trade has grown up these 'garcons laitiers
have taken on themselves to be responsible
%1r thn ri Of he mill fhau oil
sequently the companies have become in
dulgent to them. What Is the most as
tonishing is that when one Of them is
caught and condemned to prison he always
is taken back into his old employment by
the company.
1.-THE garcon latter is paid only 40 per
night. but as he never turns less than one
can Of hydrant water into the total amount
of milk he receives at the railway station
and delivers to his retail customers he
makes anywhere from $50 francs to 300
francs $3.50 to 500 week. Out Of this he
pays 81 a week into the syndicate's Gag
notte Cor kitty'.) The kitty pays for
lawyers when he has to be defended. main
tains great counter detective force to
watch the municipal laboratorys detec-
tier double wages all the time that he may
be in jail. AS there are 800 'garcons lai-
tiers in Paris, each contributes "a to 1t
weekly. this corruption fund amounts to
the extraordinary sum of 5000 per week"
With its twenty-five detectives and sew
enty-fve chemists (many of which latter
necessarily must be employed on other
work. the municipal laboratory finds 1t i'm
possible to do more than check the work.
ings Of this unique conspiracy. Night at
ter night the destination Of each expedi-
ton must be kept like state secret. At
midnight a confidential man fetches the
sealed directions from the prefecture Of
police. With the sealed envelope in hand
the chemists and detectives start out on
foot, two by two. When they are sure no
drive a couple of blocks at random, look
around them carefully again, and open the
sealed envelope. Having learned from 1t
their destination they start off at rapid
gait toward the indicated railway depot or
the indicated point along some "garcon
laitier's' route
Hard to Check.
When, until few months ago. the chem
lists and detectives started from the pre-
lecture they were followed by the counter
detectives Of the "garcons laitiers' syndi-
cate on bicycles so that these latter could
generally scoroh on ahead to warn their
employers OF the coming raid.
Each "garcon LATTER receiving his
wagon load Of milk in big sealed cans at
the Paris railway depot. would have to
operate his fraud in the moving wagon in
any case Fearing that he may be stopped
at any moment en- route by raiding chem
lists and detectives, he has become all the
more eXpSQltlOuS. w nile LOADING the milk
at the station he fills his one or more ex-
ira cans with milk. taking from the full
cans to do it. &c. unless caught he starts
off from the station with a wagon load of
cans, none really full. He drives fast. At
some agreed spot along his way-some spot
convenient to a hydrant a public foun-
tain-another curious figure comes upon the
scene. 1t is the ''garcon laitier's acrobat"
He is an acrobat because, by long prac-
tice, he can run behind the wagon throw a
can Of water into it, jump in himself and
fill those milk cans up with water to the
brims in scarcely more time than 1t takes
to tell 1t. while the wagon Is In motion.
Reads Like q Romance.
The details Of this conspiracy read like
romance. When ''garcon laitier's" place
becomes vacant the syndicate examines the
best-recommended candidate minutely. It
is generally the country depot boss of some
milk company who dominates him. saying:
'-This man has worked under my orders
and Is discreet. You can trust him"
But this first recommendation is not
enough. The candidate Is received at first
emily as an extra" He is never left a mo-
ment alone. Now with one. now with an
other full-f1edged rascal OF the syndicate,
he rides about Paris by night on the high
seat of the milk wagon learning the routes