Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1916-05-04
What Are You Drinking2 ?

Vance Thompson, in his book, Drink
and Be Sober" has chapter on "Adul-
teratlon and Falsfication" which reveals
how the makers Of liquors adulterate them
with all sorts of poisons, caring not how
they destroy the internal organs OF the
man who drinks, so they can make more
money.
Wine, beer and whskey in their purest
state contain in a marked degree the poi
son Of alcohol, but adulterated as they
are by even deadlier compounds, ought
10 make every man who values his life
and health shun TO use them.
We quote from Mr.. Thompson:
In IFS natural state, whiskey contains,
besides alcohol, the deadly poison fusel
oil, but in nearly all the whiskey sold
artificial impurities and poisons are legion.
Chemicals are added TO give whiskey any
desired "age." In Scotch whiskey, most
OF which is made in the United States by
the adulterators, creosote is placed in
large quantities. What creosote will do
to the bodily organs you may gather from
the knowledge that il is used TO preserve
ham and gives 10 il the smoky odor. The
basis for their adulteration is wood alco-
hol, deadly poison.
In an investigation in Albany, New
York, chemist placed wood alcohol in
many glasses, added different chemical
10 each, and fooled the official "tasters"
into calling them variously, Holland gin,
rye whisky, Bourbon whiskey, brandy
and Scotch whiskey OF different ages.
The chemist added can overwhelming
per cent OF the liquors sold in the United
States are made just that way" Liquor
is simply poison added 10 poison.
Quoting again from Mr.. Thompson:
Wine takers are no whit behind the
distillerS. There is little pure wine, much
OF the wine sold has never seen grape
nor a grape skin, but is made OF chemi-
Gals. A wine forger says: Give me
good water, and will turn you out bot
tie OF any kind OF wine you can name"
A gill of cheap California wine, water,
vinegar and potato alcohol will make a
quart OF "claret." To make other brands
they use citric acid, tannic acid, syrup,
glycerine and glucose, with a base OF
wood alcohol. In drinking wine, nine
times out OF ten you are drinking the
product OF the forger.
Again quoting from Mr.. Thompson:
doubt that you can buy agIass pure
beer made oi malt and hops anywhere in
the United States. There are 10 hop
substitutes, there are IS malt substitutes.
Aloes, soapstone and catechu are large
ly used. Beer ierments putrefactIvely;
to overcome this the brewers use what
they call "presevatives," including white
arsenic, a deadly poison, and salicylic
acid, which attacks the kidneys and liver.
Pure beer can be kept indefinitely and
in the sunlight, whereas bottle OF Ameri-
can beer with its "preservatiyes," left in
the sunlight a few days, will explode into
rottenness. A few years ago the New
York Legislature proposed law that
brewers keep their beer at least three
months before it is sold, as if is done in
France. England and Germany. The
brewers flew into beer-hysteria, and
armed themselves with clubs and financial
saudoags and killed the bill. This law
would have put every American brewer
out OF business, for his beer thus adulter-
ated would have exploded in The keg,
rather than in the stomach OF the con-
sumer. Some brewers are using dark
bottles to shut out the sunlight from their
aduterated beer. Good beer will sooner
or later get ifs victim, then what will this
adulterated stuff do to him 2
The law should make such poisoning
and adulterating OF liquors for financial
profit crime.
Can any man who values his health or
his life afford The risk 10 both by drinking
the liquors sold over the American bar ?
A business that would stoop to such
dangerous adulteration should be out
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