The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1904-03-12
cIGAR-Box CINNAMON.
The Wood Ground Up and Sold for
Spicc-Hiseless Honey and Pull
verixed Rock for Food.

do have some cinnamon made of CT
gar boxes" said DR.. Deghuee. chemist OF
the department of health, jokingly to
stranger who was paying visit to the
laboratory. He held up for his visitors
inspection what looked like an ordinary
piece of cinnamon, reports the New
York Sun.
That's what it is-nothing else bui
cigar box" he repeated, still smiling al
he saw the incredulity on the others
face. And so it proved on examination
But this substitution of wood for cin-
namon is as nothing compared with
some of the ingenious authorizations dis
covered by the agents of the health de-
partment.
Baking powder made of ground roct
and alum was one of the frauds exposed
Not very long ago several tons OF the
stuff was found on the East side, taken
out through the Narrows on a lighter
and dropped to the bottom OF the sea.
What did you do about it?" asked the
visitor.
IL.
'the makers were down in Tennessee
and We couldn't get at them. When we
| found out the fake they had gone out OF
business and disappeared
Rather lucrative occupation" the
other suggested, putting up rock In
packages and selling it to people for
food"
Just look at this, though" continued
the chemist, as he took from the shelf
box labeled honey" What do you
| think that is? Nothing in the world but
| glucose and paraffine, with maybe a lit
tie fiavoring. Why, four-fifths of the
honey here in New York has never been
nearer beehive than l am to New Jer-
sey this minute
From a bottle containing several doz-
en- perfectly formed coffee beans DR..
Deghuee took three or four and dis
played them in the palm of his hand.
Sweep out a bakehouse, add the
proper liquids, cover with colorine
preparation-there you have your coffee.
Good recipe, isn't 1t? By little detec-
tive work we traced this stuff back from
the small grocery to the makers and
proved conclusively that it had been
made of bakehouse sweepings. OF
course, one grain in every three or four
or five is coffee, so as to give the drink
some taste; but I'll bet you can't pick out
the real coffee beans here in my hand
Try"
The visitor tried and failed ignomin-
iously. There was absolutely no differ
ence in appearance between the false
and the real.
Coffee, the officials say, is one OF the
foods most frequently tempered with
1t was not many months ago that's Span
ish boat brought here cargo almost en-
tirely made up of adulterated coffee. II
was very poor quality of coffee painted
over with zinc preparation SO as te
look like the finest variety.
Agents of the health department
heard of the cargo's arrival. had samples
promptly analysed and refused to let il
land Whether it was palmed of or
some town with less fastidious inspec-
tors nobody here knows.
MANY a man might have been II
from the effects of that zinc covering,
remarked the chemist, "and never hav'
known the cause. In fact, they would
most likely have put all the blame oil
the Croton water. When people can
think of any other reason for being i'll
you know, they decide it's Croton wa
ter, 1t still comes in for abuse when al
other subjects give out"
From the shelves on which the i'm
pure food specimens are kept the chem
list led his visitor to case OF drawer
, and took out big scrap book. In thi
we're sample labels of all sorts of foods
baking powders, preserves, jellies. hon
sy, and pretty nearly everything else 4
De found in grocer's store. The label
were taken from packages which tn
, chemists had had occasion to examine
3 They show varied evasions of the pur
food laws. There is a statute requirin
manufacturers To state on the labe
, every foreign substance put into foot
Some comply with this rule by descrih
ing the chemicals in such small letter
that it nearly takes microscope to rea
them.
Consequently thousands of people bu
jellies, preserves and such things and ca
them, blissfully ignorant that chemics
preservatives are not only in the foot
: but are described on the outside of th
package the stuff comes in.
: Keep your eyes on the labels wa
the parting advice of the chemist to th
visitor Read the fine print-then es
the stuff il you want to-"