p. 68 | How Bar-Room Liquors Are Made

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, January 29, 1880

FromThe Review and Herald, Vol. 55, No. 5

How Bar-Room Liquors Are Made

There may be seen daily on Chestnut street, says the Philadelphia Bulletin, a man dressed in faultless apparel, with a great diamond on his breast vainly endeavoring to out-glitter the magnificent solitaire on his finger. In a German university he learned chemistry, and not even Liebig knew it better. His business is the mixing and adulterating of liquors. Give him a dozen casks of deodorized alcohol, and the next day each of them will represent the name of a genuine wine or a popular spirit. He enters a wholesale drug store, bearing a large basket upon his arm. Five pounds of Iceland moss are weighed out to him. To raw liquors this imparts a smoothness and oleaginousness that gives to imitation brandy the glibness of that which is matured. An astringent catechu, that would almost close the mouth of a glass inkstand, is next in order. A couple of ounces of strychnine, next called for, are quickly conveyed to his vest pocket, and a pound of white vitriol is as silently placed in the bottom of the basket. The oil of cognac, the sulphuric acid, and other articles that give fire and body to liquid poisons are always kept in store. The mixer buys these from various quarters. They are staples of the art.—Christian Union.