Show BOGUS COFFEE The Washington Star says that 90 percent per-cent of the domestic consumption of coffee in the United States is supplied by the countries of this continent But the Star does not say how much of the so called coffee Is stuff without any coffee in it at all Nor is there any way to make an accurate estimate Many people suppose that adulterations in coffee are confined to the ground article which is sold in packages with a chromo or prize in each They Innocently think that whilst these parcels may have some foreign Ingredients the basis i real cof feo Yet in many cases with the exception of some caffeine extract it is all made up of chicory ground cocoanut shells beans peas corn bran and a dozen other substances sub-stances perhaps not injurious to health but serving to deceive and cheat But even when people are buying the browned berry they are subject to injurious injuri-ous deception The other day a Philadelphia Philadel-phia manufacturer got on to an imitation coffee made of clay and ryo flour and sold to the trade for about 6 cents per pound and which is mixed with good coffee in the proportion of onefourth of a pound of the bogus stuff to threefourths of a pound of tho genuine berry It seems from his statement in the Ledger that some time ago tho manufacturer referred to sold a large meatcutting machine and afterwards two more of the same kind to the same party who from time to time applied for new feedscrews to replace broken ones The breakage of so many screws aroused curiosity o itr as to how the accidents happened when it transpired that the machines were used not to cut meat but to grind up materials out of which to manufacture manufac-ture coffee berries which is done by pressure A sample was put in a tumbler of water and in a short time a portion dissolved dis-solved but the rest remained intact and in two or three days became offensive to the smell Editorially the Ledger mentions a factory recently seized by the French authorities which used a mixture of about seventy pounds of any kind of flour thirty pounds of chicory or coffee substitute and one pound of sulphite of iron No doubt there are other adulterations I Can it be possible that grocerymen sell to their customers bogus coffee without knowing it or do they reconcile their consciences con-sciences to the selling of it on the ground that it is deleterious tohealth |