The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-02-15

7R, HONOLULU, SATURDAY
sugars-called maltese and dextrine-
by diastatic ferment and then with a
artificial yeast fermenting the maltos
into alcohol.
I'm qualities the chemical compost
ton Ct the beverages is totally differ
ent. Sake and beer contain maltese an
| dextrine and no tartaric or malic acid
while wine contains mahc and tartari
acid and no maltese or dextrine.
In co.or sake resembles pale sherry
Rhine wine, Budweiser beer, cider 0
any light amber-colored liquid
In odor sake resembles no wine an(
resembles only distillers beer.
In stability sake does not resembl,
wine which improves with age, Will,
sake spoils in a few months.
''In non-effervescence sake resembles
both still wines and still ales.
- In manner of use sake resembles
neither wine nor beer for it is usually
heated before it is drunk.
The great fight was made on taste
! We introduced in New York. in San
Francisco and in Honolulu, six wine ex-
| perts and professional wine tasters, nine
/ sake dealers, and seven sake users who
! testified that there is no substantial re-
semblance in taste between sake and
| wine. The government introduced six
wine manufacturers in San Francisco,
who testified that sake resembled in
taste sherry material and that sherry
material is a non-drinkable article used
mainly by manufacturers of medicinal
preparations. That it is made by adding
raw alcohol to white wine, and that
sherry material is subsequently,, by a
process of slow heating, made into Cali
fornia sherry.
''The government could find no i'm
ported sherry that was like sake in
taste, so it sent Treasury agent to
Malaga, and he brought back with him
a case of low grade Amontillado sherry
called Jiminez and Lamothe' 1t was
a wine so utterly wretched that none
of 1T was ever imported into this coun-
try except the case brought here by
the Treasury agent. Seven New York
importers testified that in taste sake
somewhat resembled this low grade
sherry. On cross examination one of
these witnesses testified that when he
first tasted sake he thought it was
rotten sherry Another said that he
thought it was sherry that had gone
wrong by the shipment of sea water
and a third said that amy dealer vino
would buy it for sherry ought to go
out of the business
"Then the government journeyed
among the brewers and fermentologists
of the west and twelve of them testified
that sake had strange taste an
Oriental taste, a taste unlike any
thing else
'EWith six points of non-resemblance
in quality to wine, sake has one point
of similitude, and only one alcoholic
strength and this has been held by
all four of the tribunals that have
passed upon it to be not sufficient to
constitute the substantial similitude
required by the courts, especially when
the rule has been laid down by the
United States Supreme Court that lin
cases of doubtful classification the i'm
porter must be given the benefit of the
doubt
81 think that there is no question
that the decision of the Z. S. Circuit
Court of Appeals will be in our favor.
Will the government go to the United
States Supreme Court2 / am not sure
that they can go there A writ of
error is not like an appeal. 1t does not
issue as matter of right. The appli-
cation for it is made ex parte. Even
then it is as often denied as it is grant
ed, and when granted it does not at all
follow that the judgment of the lower
court will be reversed The only excuse
that could be offered for an application
for writ of error by the government
would be that the Treasury Department
desired the authority of the court of
last resort before refunding a million
and half of money.
eff no writ of error is asked for or
is refused, and an order of acquiescenee |
is issued, the refunds will begin to come /
into Honolulu in June or July. If the !
case goes to the U. S. Supreme Court it |
will take six or eight months more |
There will be a million and a quarter of |
dollars refunded here.
"What viii my share amount to? |
Oh, / never count chickens until the
period of incubation has expired, and |
there are many people with whom a /
division must be made. We have spared |
neither cost nor effort in making this |
fight. We have had the best customs
lawyers in the country to help US. |
Albert Comstock and Percy w. Crane
in New York, Charles j. Sherrol at
Stanley Jackson and Hen
ry c. Dibble in San Francisco. We
have also had the aid of the leading
chemists, fermentologists and wine ex-
perts on the mainland In New York
we had Professor Jokichi Iakamini who
was chief of the government Bureau of
Chemistry in Toxic, and Commissioner
from Japan to the New Orleans and st.
Louis expositions. He is the inventor
of the saketakl process of brewing
sake, and is renowned even in Europe
as an expert wine faster. We had also
in New York Professor Herman Ender-
man, who was head of the chemical
of the University of Mu-
mich. In San Francisco we had Profess
sor Louis Falkeneau and Professor Ar
thur Wilhelmj, chemists and expert
wine tasters; and last but not least,
Charles A. Wetmore, who carries the
title of the father of the California
wine industry
"My compensation will be large. of |
course, even after all claims are salts
fed, but / can honestly say that / will |
have earned every dollar of it. l have
expended thousands of dollars and given
e