Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1916-04-04

Washington, D. c., March 30.-Not
long ago large shipment of Chinese
leechi nuts arrived in San Francisco
and passed the usual examination of
the customs officials. In loading the
boxes on a truck, however, one drop.
ped to the ground, scattering it's con.
tents and incidentally disclosing the
fact that it contained not leechi nuts,
but tea. The customs officials imme-
diately ordered the boxes returned to
the dock where every one of them
was opened and it's contents investi-
gated. AS was suspected, the whole
shipment was well padded with small
pound baskets of peculiar kind OF
Chinese tea prohibited entry by the
United States government.
This tea, called by the Chinese "Oid
Mans Tea is believed by the super
stitious of their race to contain many
wonderful medicinal qualities, but the
practical government experts have
pronounced it nothing but an ordinary
tea, so highly fermented as to he
sour and unfit for consumption in this
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 nuis-
ance to have to go through several
thousand boxes of peanuts, for in
stance, in order to hold up perhaps
five or six one-pound baskets of sour
tea. But so exhaustive have become
the precautions taken by the customs
officials that basket of this tea now
rarely enters the country.
In fact, tea is by far the safest and
most protected commodity we buy,
for not one pound is released in thf
course CT trade that has rot been eX-
amined by government expert. No
longer does the clever application OF
Prussian blue and soapstone deceive
American consumers. The govern
lnent allows the importer just SIX
months to get such shipment of tea
out of the country; if by that time it
is not deported the tea is confiscat-
ed and destroyed. These rigorous
measures have resulted in the pas
sage of laws by tea producing nations
prohibiting the use of coloring and
adulteration in teas.
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, Chicago, ST..
Paul Tacoma, San Francisco and Hon
olulu, which are ports receiving the
greatest number of tea shipments.
While the headquarters of the exam
iners is the customs office of the port
at which they are employed, they are
directly under the supervision Of
George F. Mitchell, the supervising
lea expert at Washington. In addi-
ton, there is a United States board
Of tea appeals before which are heard
the cases of importers, dissatisfied
with the decisions rendered by the ex-
amining experts.
When a cargo of tea arrives in any
port in this country, consigned to
American importers, the law requires
that it shall be placed in bonded
warehouse. Here samples of the tea
are obtained by the customs officials
and turned over to the federal exam
iners, who, by comparing it with gov
standards, decide whether its
purity, quality and fitness for con-
are such that it can pc
placed upon the market If there Is
no examiner in the port where the tea
arrives. samples of the product are
sent by parcel post to the nearest fed
eral examiner.
When the tea is up to government
standards, it is Immediately released
by the examiner and resumes the usu-
al course of trade. When it is not up
to standard, however, and is rejected
by the examiner, the importer is given
a period of six months in which to
remove the tea from the country; at