The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-04-25
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM ALTON
B u RE A u
FREDERIC J. HAsKIN. Director.
washington. d. c.
NEW DRINKs FOR OLD.
waahington. D. G


tional prohibition will doubtless re-
duce the amount of liquor consumed,
once it has been decided who is to
enforce the measure, but there are
some signs that it will not reduce
the variety of beverages used, for
while at least.
Soft drinks, of course, are in for
phenomenal boom. Then there is
the rise into pernicious prominence
as bevera ges of such things as toilet
preparations and furniture polishes
containing a percentage of alcohol
Finally, the making of beverages in
the home promises to furnish the
federal prohibition agency, whatever
it may be, with the most dlfficult ana
embarrassing problem of all.
Making liquor at home is not a
novelty of recent origin in this coun-
try, but an old American custom. In
colonial days, not only did the settler
distill his own corn whisky, but his
wife made wines and cordials out of
grapes, blackberries and various
other fruits. With the coming of
store. liquor the disti1ling of whisky
became restricted to the moonshine
stills of the remote mountain dis
tricts, and the making of wines and
cordials in the homes also became
less common. But, altho the fact is
not widely known, wines are still
made by housewives quite generally
in the Allegheny regions, by recipes
that are many generations old. The
product is a bright red wine, very
sweet and palatable. and not very
strong, but containing alcohol enough
to make it Illicit.
Since the spread of state prohibit
ton began, this ancient American
custom of making your own" has
shown a tendency to come down from
the mountain Businesses where 1t had
retired and to live in town. There
are some good-sized American cities
their own beer, and it is not near
beer. either.
Closely allied with the soft drinks
which have recently multiplied SO
greatly are the imitation hard drinks.
These are announced with swagger
descriptions and names suggestive of
the mixtures they aspire to resemble.
They are, in fact. the same drinks
lacking only the one ingredient hith-
erto regarded as essential.
Detroit has evolved a nearer ap
pFoach to the old-fashioned cocktail,
but even this is only vaguely sugges-
tive of the real article. Detroit's new
drink is grape juice unfortified,
served in a cocktail glass. With it is
offered a small yeast tablet which,
when introduced to the grape juice,
produces 'fizzy something that De-
troit is pleased to call the Cocktail a
la Mode.
Mixtures less drinkabIe to most
people than these prohibition proof
cocktails, but nevertheless more pop
ular, are non beverage forms of alco-
hol. Internal revenue agents have for
years combated the use of patent med
icines and toilet preparations as
drinks, and now extra effort is being
made to prevent the sale of these ar
ticles for beverage purposes. Some of
the commercial preparations drunk
by alcoholics contain as much as sew
enty-five per cent of alcohol. Con-
sidering that whisky and vodka con-
tain from forty to sixty per cent, and
that absinthe contains about seventy
per cent and is accounted rank poison,
the danger of drinking this kind of
alcohol is apparent.
There are hundreds of these medical
and commercial preparations contain
ing alcohol Wood alcohol even is
drunk by some reckless or ignorant
people, with the result that some be-
come blinded thru atrophy of the OPP
tic nerve. and others are killed out
right Women alcoholics are more
hkely to use perfumes than are men,
and are heavy consumers of medicines
containing a high percentage of alco-
hol. Often the medicines are taken
in large quantities by persons who
have no idea of the amount of alcohol
not aware that they are taking alco-
hol at all.
These commercial preparations are
all supposed 10 be so medicated as to
be undrinkable. Certainly only a per-
verted palate would find furniture pol
ish acceptable. In Russia, where
vodka was banished just before the
war started, furniture polish and
many things not attempted by alco-
holics in this country are drunk with
disastrous results. Benzine, naphtha
and kerosene are Russian drinks re-
ported to be consumed in such guam
titles as to Gre -e a shortage of these
commodities. All of the non-bever-
age spirits are highly injurious as
many of them contain methyl, or de-
natured, alcohol. and all have in them
other ingredients. some of which are
dangerous to the system.
The internal revenue agents also
have an eye on the private still or
brewery, and are now running down
Illicit manufacture in dry territory.
Three weeks of a campaign in one
town netted twenty-four home distil-
lers and still the search goes on. Just
what are the signs by which the reve-
nue. detective spots a city moonshiner
the internal revenue bureau cannot,
of course, divulge. But agents are
given special training for their sleuth-
| ing QOIleS IN connecllOn with ENFORCE
ment of prohibition.
| All sorts of formulas for homemade
drinks are scattered abroad. Old cook
books are ransacked for ancient
recipes. and rare formulas are passed
from one person to another with elab-
crate secrecy and careful handling.
OF all the protests against pro-
hibition by far the greatest number
| have been relative to beer. America
seems willing to give up whisky as
Russia willingly gave up vodka. and
France absinthe. But many citizsns
demand some substitute stronger than
soda water, and beer is the substi-
| tute most called for. New York
brewers announce their intention of
manufa curing beer to contain 80
| per cent of alcohol by volume eek
| per cent by weight). on the grounds