Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-05-01
PROTECTING THE TEA DRINKER
TTTASHINGTON, d. C.-Not long
wv agoalarge shipment of Chinese
BY Frederic J. Haskin

wv agoalarge shipment of Chinese
W leechi nuts arrived in San
Francisco and passed theusual eXamin-
alton of the customs officials. In load
ing the boxes on a truck, however,
one dropped to the ground. scatter
ing its contents and Incidentally dis
closing the fact that it contained not
leechi nuts, but tea The customs Of
ficials Immediately ordered the boxes
returned to the dock where every one
of them was opened and its contents
Investigated. AS was suspected, the
whole shipment was we'll padded with
small pound baskets of a peculiar kind
of Chinese tea prohibited entry by the
United States government.
This tea, called by the Chinese, Old
Mans Tea" is believed by the super
stitious of their race to contain many
wonderful medicinal qualities, but the
practical government experts have
pronounced ii nothing but an ordinary
tea, so highly fermented as to be sour,
and unfit for consumption in this
country. Hence the customs officials
are continually eXasperated at the
cunning methods devised by the Chi
nese who seek to smuggle it into the
country in shipments of crude drugs,
joss papers and peanuts. 1t is a nui-
sance to have to go through several
thousand boxes of peanuts, for
instance, in order to hold up perhaps
five or six one-pound baskets of sour
tea. But so exhaustive has become
the precautions taken by the customs
officials that a basket of this tea now
rarely enters the country.
In fact, tea is by far the safest and
most protected commodity to buy, for
mot one pound is released in the course
of trade that has not been examined
by a government expert. No longer
does the clever application of Prus-
sian blue and~soapstone deceive Am
erican consumers. The government
allows the importer just six months to
get shipment of tea out of the count
ry; If by that time it is not deported,
the tea is confiscated and destroyed
These rigorous measures have resulted
in the passage of laws by tea-produc-
ing nations prohibiting the use of col
oring and adulteration in teas. f.
The tea inspection service main
tanned by the United States govern
ment is direct and thorough. In the
! first place, there are tea examiners in
New York, Boston, Tacoma, San Fran
cisco and Honolulu, which are ports
receiving the greatest number of tea
shipments. While the headquarters
of the examiners is the customs Of
fee of the port at which they are en-
lployed, they are directly under the
supervision of George F. Mitchell
the Supervising Tea Expert at Wash
iington. In addition, there is a United
States Board of Tea Appeals before
which are heard the cases of import
ers, dissatisfied with the decisions rem
dered by the examining experts.
When a cargo of tea arrives in any
port in this country. consigned to Am
erican importers. the law requires
that it shall be placed in a bonded
warehouse. Here samples of the tes
are obtained by the customs officials
and turned ever to the federal essffa IA
iners, who, by comparing it with gov
ernment standards. decide whether Its
purity, quality and fitness for con-
sumption are such that it can be
placed upon the market. If there, Is