Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 310, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 December 1912 — NOTHING NEW IN THE WORLD [ARTICLE]

NOTHING NEW IN THE WORLD

What Are Called Present-Day Evils Really Date Back to Beginning of Time. It is not only in modern days that the cry has been raised against impure foods or that the makers of foodstuffs have attempted to adulterate their products by the injection of unwholesome materials into their articles. Far back in the days when Rome swayed the world many of the socalled present day evils were prevalent. Divorces were more common then than they are today; at one time, in fact, divorces became so ordinary an occurrence that a woman who had not been divorced at least once was pointed out as a curiosity. And the adulteration of foods was another everyday matter. In the writings of that day c4n be found accounts of the evils, and Pliny tells of the manner in which the bakers in Rome mixed the dough of their bread with a white earth, which was exceedingly soft when touched and very sweet to the taste. In this manner they were able to put out a foodstuff that was fine in appearance and had weight, and yet it cost them little or nothing in the making and had practically no food value. Wines were another product which were adulterated to an amazing extent Even the wealthiest among the Roman nobles could not be at all sure that the expensive wines they bought were made of pure grape. Even the wines that were imported from the colony of Gaul, now France, and which we re considered to be the finest in the world, were artificially colored by aloes and other drugs. Deceptive weights and false measures were us§d continually, and almost all the modern tricks of the trade were practiced. It can truly be said of thja, as of all other things, that there is nothing new under the sun.