The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1906-07-27

products of the country are adulter-
ated, and how the consumer is de
frauded. The space in front of the
speakers desk resembled a small
section of a delicatessen store and a
corner grocery with cereals, jams,
jellies, tins of peas, tomatoes, corn,
prepared spices, bottles of Whiskey and
wine, imported sausages, branded
cherries and other edibles and drink
ables scattered over two tables.
Representative Mann proceeded to
demonstrate to the House through
these various food products the neces-
sity for national pure food law.
One of the first articles taken up by
the Congressman was the ordinary
t-pepper-which to the lay
mind is considered too cheap for any
manufacturer to spend time in adul-
terating. He read circulars from nu-
merous concerns Offering for sale q
certain grade of adulterant which
could be used to produce pepper or
almost any other of the spices with
some slight modification. AS he scat
tered a package of this over his desk
the members in the vicinity started
back in order to avoid the usual sneez-
ing which follows the inhalation of a
small quantity Of pepper. But they
were treasured by the ''grOceryman'
that it was not harmful, for while
it was called pepper it was nothing
but ground olive pits. He convulsed
the House when he read the price list
of adulterants showing that they were
offered to the trade for $40 a ton in
f1ve-ton lots, and that at that rate they
were guaranteed to make the finest
black pepper which, as everyone
10 .,,@TI - l.,
the statement that even the pepper
berry itself was adulterated by a
cleverly contrived manufacture of tap
loco colored with lamp black.
Possibly the most striking demon
stration of the afternoon was one with
a bottle of red cherries. These cher
ries, il was explained, We're picked
green, and that after being bleached
out white by the use of a powerful
acid, had been colored the brilliant
red by the use of coal tar dye-a
deadly poison if used in large quanti
ties. Representative Mann dipped a
piece of white cloth in the Juice" of
these cherries, and it partook of a
brilliant red as though it had just come
from a dyerS.
Olive oil, explained Mr.. Mann, is a
product which is in most cases, adul
terated. In many instances the coun-
terfeit is merely American cotton seed
ola wholesome and satisfactory
dressing for salad, but it costs about
II as much as real olive oil, and the
American buyer certainly does not
care to purchase a dressing for four
times its actual worth.
HIVELESS HONEY.
One of the freak EXHIBITS was a
bottle of "honey" which, in order to
complete the assurance of the buyer
that the article was genuine, contained,
as if by accident, the body of real
bee, yet the whole mess was pure and
simple glucose, and had never been
near a hive, much less a comb. The
hive probably was a ten story fac
tory in one of the large cities.
A bottle of ..FreeZine' was exhibited
by Mr. Mann. who explained that this
remarkable article was guaranteed to
preserve meat from the action of the
air and stop decay. While he ad-
mitted that it would stop the action of
nature on meats. he claimed that the
preservative itself was actually poison
Gus, containing sulphide of soda with
red coal tar dye and could not be
used safely upon human food.
The public is unwittingly defrauded
TO a great extent through short weight
and short measure in package goods,
explained Mr.. Mann. and he insisted
that the manufa cturers should be COM
PEELED to state on the label the guam
tity contained in the bottle or carton.
In line with this was a dramatic dem
onstration when the Chicago pure food
expert held up before the House a