The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-06-15
By WILLIAM ALTDoRFER.

II some body handed you a steaming
cup of freshly made coffee with the COM
mand, Tell me what that is" would you
think him crazy? Would you humor his
whim and say coffee, or would you tell
him frankly that he was slightly de-
mented, to say the least? And suppose a
little later another man should offer you
a cup of freshly brewed tea with the
same injunction, what would you dc?
Wouldn't you begin to feel creepy? And
then to top ii all OF, II tall, thin man
were to ask you to take a taste of red
pepper and tell him what ii was, do you
think you could bear Up under the strain ?
Wouldn't you think you had suddenly
gotten in the midst of a crowd of luna
tics?
But even though you imagined all this
you would be wrong.
All of these men would have asked
perfectly sane questions, the same queries
they themselves answer every day in the
year, and get paid large salary for so
doing. They are experts at such things.
Almost every body has to spend hard
earned cash to taste rare wines and other
delicacies but Uncle Sam pays 80 tasters
from 5000 to 5000 per year to try them.
1t is all a part of the governments plan
These government tasters go from city
TO city, slipping champagne and beer, try
ing costly food stuffs that are subject TO
interstate commerce, or sit in the labor
atories of the Bureau of Chemistry, where
these things are served them. All they
have to do is to report products that are
not just right or misbranded, so that I'M
Gle Sam may bring the culprits to time.
Tasters are stationed in many of the
principal cities of the country where In
Gle Sans food inspection service has Of
fees. There are many also at headquar-
tiers in Washington.
Life for these official tasters is not all
one sweet dream. There are some things,
such as red peppers, that might just as
we'll go untasted DIR. L. c. Mitchell, one
of Uncle Sans pepper tssters, has just
completed an investigation of red pep
pers. and he had TO use gallons OF milk
TO get rid of the taste after he tried
very hot species. He said, in speaking of
his experience, Il spent two weeks work.
ing on the pepper test, and got so mucn
Of 1t in my system that 1 don't believe |
will ever need any more seasoning in my
food as long as l live"
Some of the Experts.
The profession of official faster for the
United States government may. on its
face, seem strange, yet it is more inter-
esting than strange ". B. Atwood is
the official wine expert who has the last
word to say on all wines coming into the
United States. He is stationed at Char
lottesville, Va. DIR. L. c. Mitchell is the
red pepper expert extraordinary at Wash |
ington. Dr. Lucius NJ. Tolman is Uncle !
Sans chief official faster at Washington. !
DIR. Hartmann is another wine and whis- !
key tabulator. and William B. Harris is |
the official coffee faster with permanent |
headquarters in New York City. Miss |
F. Alberta Read, a noted woman scien- |
fist. is one OF the official fraudulent tea |
detectors, while George F. Mitchell is |
the head tea expert of the United States
These men and women, with a score
Of others, form a peculiarly interesting |
group Of Uncle Sans specialists. whose '