[Two Magistrates have decided that selling coffee "containing
80 per cent. of chicory" is not punishable under the
Adulteration Act.]
EVER since drinking my morning cup of what my grocer humorously
describes as "French Coffee," I have suffered from headache, vertigo,
and uncontrollable dyspepsia. I wonder what can be the cause?
Perhaps the fact (inscribed on the bottom of the tin in very small
letters) that "this is a mixture of coffee and chicory," has something
to do with it.
Only as the chicory is in a majority of four to one, would it not be
more correct to describe it as "a mixture of chicory and coffee?"
I see that, in accordance with the Adulteration Act, my baker
now sells bread which he labels as "a compound of wheat and other
ingredients." Other disagreedients, he ought to say.
"Partly composed of fresh fruit," is the inscription on the jam
I purchase. This means one raspberry to a pound of mashed
mangold-wurzel.
We shall be taking chemically-coloured chopped hay at five this
afternoon. Will you join us?
If I purchase my own coffee-beans and grind them, can my breakfast be
properly termed a bean-feast?
Yes, as you say, I can no doubt guard against adulteration by keeping
a couple of cows in my cellar, growing corn in my backyard, tea-plants
and sugar-canes on my roof, and devoting my best bed-room to the
cultivation of coffee, fruit, and mixed pickles; but would my landlord
approve of the system?
And, finally, is this what they mean by a "Free Breakfast Table," that
every grocer is "free" to poison us under cover of a badly-drawn Act
of Parliament?
* * * * *
TO THE PUBLIC.--"Modern Types." Type not yet "used up." Type No. X.
will appear next week.
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