PROCEEDINGS OF KINDRED SOCIETIES. 233 



is properly mashed and heated, the diastase of the malt converts the starch 

 of the corn into saccharine, and the rye, with the assistance of yeast, 

 aiding the fermentation thereof into a beer, containing alcohol, which 

 alcohol is separated from the beer by distillation, and the resulting vapor 

 condensed by forcing into cold water. This product is called low wines, 

 being whisky below i^roof, in contradistinction to high wines, or whisky 

 above proof. From this low wines the vinegar is made, by means of the 

 vinegar generator, of which I will speak more in detail later on, as gener- 

 ators can be employed also to advantage in making vinegar from aj)ple 

 juice. 



The making of low wines containing twenty -per cent, of alcohol, without 

 the payment of any revenue tax whatever, is allowed only in vinegar 

 factories by an act of congress passed March, 1879, commonly known as 

 the " vaporizing law. " It was one of those pieces of class legislation 

 which interested parties sometimes manage to get our law-makers to think 

 the country is suffering for. My father and myself, along with a few 

 others, spent the greater part of that winter in Washington opposing the 

 passage of that bill, but without success. The enactment of this piece of 

 class legislation, as was foreseen, is the source from which all the troubles 

 of the cider-maker arise, as it enables vinegar made from grain at a cost 

 of two and one half to three cents per gallon, to be colored with burnt 

 sugar, and by branding the packages with fancy label or stencil, to palm 

 it off on an unsuspecting public as pure cider or fruit goods. The trade 

 generally are forced by competition to handle this article, and vinegar 

 manufacturers are compelled by the same means to fall into line with the 

 new methods or retire from business, in consequence of which vinegar 

 dealers are learning to believe in P. T. Barnum's" maxim, that " the 

 American people like to be humbugged." The vinegar itself is pure and 

 wholesome enough (so is oleomargarine for that matter) but the selling 

 of it under these false representations is nothing more nor less than a 

 fraud, when done outside of those states having vinegar laws, while within 

 their boundaries it becomes a crime as well. If any of this company 

 were to go into a jewelry store and, on the representations of the dealer, 

 pay the price of a genuine gold and diamond ring, and then learn in a few 

 days that it was simply brass and paste, how quickly he would consider 

 he had been swindled and set the police authorities on the swindler's 

 track. Yet brass and paste are harmless and useful articles in themselves, 

 and if taken at their true value answer the purposes of some people; but 

 if we are quick to guard our purses, how much more essential it becomes 

 when we can protect our stomachs as well. A law was passed and 

 approved in this state, July 1, 1889, making the selling of any vinegar 

 other than that made wholly from cider or fruit, as pure cider or fruit 

 vinegar, or of artificially coloring vinegar, a crime punishable by fine and 

 imprisonment. This law has been upon our statute books for over a year 

 and a half now, and is plain and ample to punish misdoers, but there never 

 has been a prosecution or conviction under it, though there isn't a prose- 

 cuting attorney in the state, nor yet a plain ordinary citizen, who can not 

 go before the proper court of his country and secure the conviction and 

 punishment of any wholesale or retail dealer or manufacturer who trans- 

 gresses the law, with the same ease tllat he might secure the j)unishnient 

 of a swindler or thief who breaks any other law of the state. But what is 

 everybody's business generally j)roves nobody's business, and the law will 

 remain a dead letter until a food commissioner is appointed in the state 



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