Daily Kennebec journal., 1925-11-27
SCATTERING AN ILLUSION

Even those willing to risk their
health by drinking booze would be
unwilling to be considered "dupes" /,
yet there Is increasing evidence that
they are systematically being "gulled"
Their credulity is amazing. They
believe LOT Of foreign liquor As be-
ing brought into this country. also
that their bootlegger. when he tells
them they are getting their share of
it at a high price. They appear
never to have thought of the op-
portunities there are to swindle by
tampering with what little has been
brought, of the ways by which not
only. the liquor but the container as
well may be initiated, all for the
profit there is in doing so.
This report from representative
Of "The London News" to his paper,
following an invitation along with
other newspaper men to witness the
tests being made in the International
Revenue laboratory. is far from re-
assuring the bibulous of anything
save the certainty of their own folly.
He declares that prohibition made
a master stroke when 1t invited the
newspaper representatives to see
what have been found in the $4,000
samples analyzed. What he has to
say should be interesting to those
having any curiosity about the
libations indulged in by people in
this country:
"A national illusion has been shat
tered.
My bootlegger can be trusted
every American business man has
proclaimed. L don't buy any of the
cheap hooch.' It's branded stuff for
mine, all the time. The real goods,
from Scotland via Rum Row. l buy
it by the case, just as 1t was when
it left the distillery. 1t sure costs
some-but Safety First! / want to
know what I'm drinking.
Well, now he does. The chemists
have obliged him, and he doesn't
quite know whether to thank them or
drill q hole through them. He has
been shown that all this thrilling
melodrama business of mysterious
rum running ships lurking a few
miles out at sea and smuggling in
carsoes of hundreds of cases of
genuine whisky is mere eyewash to
deceive him. A little real smuggling
OF this kind certainly does occur, but
the bootleggcrs ashore are. not such
fools as to sell untampered- with
whisky when their customers pay as
readily for a faxed blend.
The records of the International
Revenue laboratory show that not /
per cent of the samples they examine,
each sold as genuine, is what it pur-
ports to be.
An elaborate organization has
grown up, with ramifications all over
the country. for taking the bottles,
ccrks. capsules, labels and boxes
used for each of our well-known
brands of whisky. The special kind
of nails used in the cases in which
Scotch whisky is packed for exporta-
ton have been imported from
Scotland. The stenciled lettering on
the case is perfectly initiated. Even
the taste of the contents is pretty
skillfully initiated. Not until samples
reach the laboratory is the dirt and
poison revealed.
Lye and formaldehyde, pyridine
and carbolic acid, iodine and ace
tone remain in the methylated
spirits that forms the base of many
of the genuine" bottles of spirits,
acquired at such cost. From them
come kidney disease. blindness and
death--rot SO hastily as in the early
crude phases. of bootlegging. for the
blends of ingredients are now more
elaborate. but slowly and steadilyn