Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-03-14
FOOD DECEPTI0NS.

| FOOD DECEPTlONS. |
III By Frederic J. Haskin. III
When a man goes out to buy an auto
mobile no crafty dealer can sell him
a horse; he cannot even be deceived as
to the grade of the car. Did anybody
ever hear of an automobile fan pay
ing for a seven-passenger Limousine
and getting a two-passenger roadster?
But every day he may be buying straw
berry oil that never saw a strawberry.
Who could be induced to accept a
whiskbroom in lieu of an expensive
vacuum cleaner? On the other hand.
thousands of householders day after
day are handing out good money for
maple strip that has no maple strip
in it, for "egg noodles" which are
noodles colored by saffron. for grape
jelly made from apple Feelings and for
a host of other food receptions.
The federal Department of Agricul-
ture has been enforcing the pure food
and drug act ever since Its passage In
1906. The campaign that DR.. Harvey
W. Wiley waged for six years is known
to the nation. DR.. Carl Alsberg. his
successor as chief Of the bureau OF
chemistry, has carried the good work
along. There have been thousands of
seizures and prosecutions for fragrant
violations of the law, covering every
industry that does an interstate bust
ness and almost as many convictions.
Most OF the states have followed the
lead of the federal government. AS
a rule. the federal and state authort-
ties join forces to drive these people
out into the open. and decided diminu-
ran rampant has been the result New
ertheless the traffic Is profitable
enough to keep an active minority in
the field, and the game of hide and
seek. with Mr.. Average Citizen as ut"
still goes on.
In the last few months the Department
of Agriculture has unearthed a number
Of ingenious
MANY DeceptiOnS receptions I n
Unearthed Recently. ana n,.nrana.
ing Of food, liquids and drugs. Some
have been so clever as to evade prosecu-
ton. and the best that could be done was
the issuance of warnings through the
newspapers. A shipment of mint tablets
was found to contain tale. the basic els-
ment of talcum powder.
Seizures of tomato catsup composed OF
putrid tomato pulp have been common OF
late. The same is true Of tomato pastes
Hundreds Of samples Of catsup were
found by the government chemists to be
moldy and full Of bacteria and yeasts.
Decomposed tomato conserve was offered
to the public under a label claiming that
1t had been put up In accordance with the
pure food law One shipment proudly
proclaimed as a delectable and superior
variety was wholly unfit for food. At Sa-
vannah and Augusta recently nearly 800
cases Of timed butter, peas and tomato
pulp were seized and destroyed as unfit
for human food.
Macaroni. eggs. beans, bran and -four
deceitfully labeled, or of inferior quality,
or downright filthy, have been tossed into
the dump heap by the hand OF the law.
A great deal Of the macaroni was manu-
featured in the eastern states and shipped
out under labels worded as to create
the impression that it was Of foreign orr
gin To the popular imagination Italy Is
the only simon pure promised land for
the lover Of macaroni. but the pure, high
grade American product is the equal of
any that is manufactured in Victor EN-
manueIs kingdom.
In regard to eggs. the authorities found
that the so-called villainous ones shipped
from China were
Chinese Eggs Better not only of a
Than Domestic. .bsm - ea .arn,a
sion, but that hundreds Of crates and
barrels Of wholly domestic origin were
decomposed and vile. ''Cull'' or moldy
beans have been detected In canned baked
beans during the past few months. FIRE.
quently the tomato sauce" which twined
SO seductively around the beans was
tainted in character. The stigma OF a
doubtful reputation now carries conden-
| nation in the eyes Of the discriminating
public.
Diluted and infected milk, the death
angel of thousands of babies and the
herald of epidemics, still flows on Cupid
ity or careessness. and sometimes both,
! prompt the very profitable pumping of 1t
into human bodies. Several interstate
shipments Of condensed and evaporated
| milk have been held up and the RESPONSE
BILE parties fined. Some of the evaporat-
ed milk was offered for sale in the capt.
/ tai Of the nation. A portion OF butter
| fat, very essential element OF milk, had
been taken out. In other words, it was
| SKINNED and called blended" farmer
| in certain eastern state, which We may
| call Delaware MIXED his cows with scar
| let fever scabs on his hands. The milk
| was drunk by patrons in nearby city,
| one of whom left that morning for an
| other eastern state, where ne unsuspect-
| eddy gave the disease to many others be-
| fore he himself was stricken.
| long list of soft and spirituous liquors
has been put under the ban. A certain
domestic wine was labeled and packed to
make the careless buyer think 1t was
| champagne. A so-called temperance beer
really was beer. Several cases of Soup
pernong wine" which the interested par
| ties discreetly failed to claim when the
government seized the lot, WAS shown by
| chemical analysis to be a mixture of
| other wines that had been favored, mixed
and sweetened for the purpose of initial
| ing scuppernong wine.
Enthusiastic devotees of Tom and Jerry
| in New York had bad shock q short
II ,e.sa time ago when
| tbay fa,,nd ho.