Los Angeles herald., 1908-03-24

NOWPER sang the praise of the cup
1 that cheers without inebriating.
~ America declared its preference for
a cup that cheers and inebriates, and
now Nemesis is collecting the bill, be-
cause the cup that cheers and inebri-
ates also poisons. There is death In H.
DR.. H. w. Wiley, chief of the govern
ment bureau of chemistry, says that
S5 per cent of all the whisky sold in the
United States in hotels. restaurants,
clubs and bars is not whisky, but
cheap and deleterious imitation. Some
time ago The Herald sent out young
man to ascertain whether 1t was possl-
BILE to purchase a drink in alleged dry
towns near this city. Let us be care
full to state that he was not instructed
to imbibe or sample any drink that was
purchasable in dry towns, or we
verify believe that he would not have
survived the ordeal, and deep indeed
would have been our remorse and abid-
ing our sense of guilt. He was told TO
adopt ways and means of having the
liquor put in evidence, and, if possible,
to bring a sample to Los Angeles he
found it easily possible to obtain SAM
pies, and we have retained one of them
in order to observe it's chemical evolu-
ton and await developments. Up to
date, there has been no explosion, but
the stuff in the bottle is beginning to
look dangerous, 1t has now an Oily
appearance, as if it were charged with
nitro glycerine, and there is a queer
black sediment, which may be gunpow-
der, although experts assure us that it
is only tobacco. This internal mixture
was purchased in one Of the dry
suburbs. The man who sold it was a
chemist and druggist, who profited by
the elimination of the saloon keeper
from his teetotal community, and made
judicious sales of rum on prescription or
on some plausible plea of desperate Ill
health, We will believe heartily that a
person might be enjoying what Mrs
Malaprop called notoriously good health
one minute before sampling the drug
store whisky, and that one minute af-
terward he would be in the most en-
thusiastic and satisfactory i'll health;
possibly sin extremis." The ingenious
drug store man thus supplies an eX post
facto excuse for the sale of the liquor.
All liquor served over a bar is more
or less adulterated, says Or. Wiley.
He says that we must not blame the
saloon keeper and if the saloon keeper,
on learning what Wiley has reported,
will refrain from administering poisons
to the public we will humor the lenient
government chemist and refrain from
blaming the retailer. But if he should
persist in selling to the public doses of
poison, and if he should accept the
money paid by the public to a man who
betrays ii and assaults its health and
life, then, if we refrain from blaming
him. we would be accessories after the
fact, and morally as bad as he.
DR.. Wiley tells us that the public
taste has been so perverted that not
bar-roon could keep its doors open
month if its proprietor refused to buy
or sell anything but pure whisky.
Drinkers have been trained to cali for
palatable poison, and will accept moth
ing else. Here is one way in which
favorite lease goods" are compounded:
The basis is a vitriolic variety of alco-
hoI called neutral spirits. To this is
added a composition of prune juice.
glycerine, bead Ola combination of
sulphuric acid and cottonseed oil-with
a plug of ordinary tobacco or a bunch
of tobacco stems absorbed in the MKT
ure to give 1t color and thickness, and
to complete the hell-brew there is added
a fiavorinx OF dangerous, heart de-
pressant coal tar products. Adequate
punishment should be provided for all
concerned in the manufacture, the
wholesaling and the retailing of this
poison. Not less than five years in
states prison should be the reward of
the poisoners. After taking another
look at the sample in the bottle we are
compelled 10 believe that Lucrezia Bor-
gia has lost her laurels to California
drug store keeper.