The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1923-05-04
HOME MADE BOOZE
MUCH LIKE POISON
Declaration From James M.
Doran, Who Has Exam
ined the Stuff

James M. Doran, head of the
chemical division of the prohibition
unit is quoted in The Ladies' Home
Journal as declaring that moonshine
| is a deadly thing. Doran is the son
of Rev. Frank Doran, district super
intendent of the Methodist Demon
nation. The quotation occurs in an
account of how easily liquor may be
purchased despite prohibition re-
strictions. Mr.. Doran said:
Last year we analysed 10000
samples of liquors seized by the
government in all parts of the coup-
try. Only two per cent were gent
inc; SO per cent were limitations and
unfit to drink. The majority were
poisonous. Virtually no liquor is
coming into this country from Scot
land, England or Continental Europe.
All ofsthe stuff smuggled in by rum
runners is bad raw alcohol made In
Cuba from blackstrap molasses, then
shipped to Nassau, where it is col
ored and favored. All brands are
made from the same vat and bottled
under counterfeit labels and sent in
to the United States. The Scotch
in this alcohol favored with creo-
sote to give it smoky tang. It is
all worse than the oldtime squirrel
whisky, SO called because it was cal
culated to make man climb a tree.
A rum running business Is all built
on this Cuban alcohol. l doubt il
you can buy bottle of genuine
Scotch whisky in the U. S. at any
price.
The Denatured Alcohol.
Another source of supply is in
dustrial alcohol denatured with var
beverage. Alcohol that is to be used
in making perfumes. toilet prepare
tons and BARRIERS supplies, is dena-
tured by putting into it acetone,
which lacerates the stomach; or iso-
propyl alcohol which paralyzes the
nerve centers or brucine sulphate, a
poison SO deadly that the govern
ment in its instructions for denatur-
ing alcohol, prints this warning:
Caution: Use extreme care in tast-
ing the brucine sulphate.' Yet since
prohibition 1900 firms have been or
ganized in New York City alone to
manufacture hair tonics, bay rum
and face washes. Withdrawing this
and selling 1t through bootleggers.
The crude methods Of rehabilitation
leave enough Of the original poisons
in the stuff to make 1t extremely
dangerous to drink"
- Those Moonshine Stills.
Another source of illicit booze is
moonshine stills. This stuff is as
dangerous as the others. 1t is loaded
with aldehyles, the cause of so
many moonshine deaths, in which
the breath Is shut off and the victim
chokes and smothers to death while
the heart continues to beat for sew
eral minutes. This poison is due to
poor fermentation. The only way to
prevent 1t Is to age the liquor in bar
rels OF charred oak slaves.
mo whisky sold by bootleggers is
fit to drink. 1t Is all spurious. That
which comes from Canada is coun-
ferfeit too.
Big plants have been discovered
there making sham Scotch whisky
especially for American trade un-
der fake labels made in Japan. In
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, we raided
a plant that had been printing coun-
terfeit labels for all kinds of liquors
for three years. They had $4,000
worth Of the fake labels on hand.
1T is going to be up to the public,
sooner Or later, to leave all booze
alone. If people will stop paying
criminals ten or twenty dollars a
quart for fake liquors the country
Will soon be bone dry"