Rensselaer Democrat, Volume 1, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1898 — What London Drinks. [ARTICLE]

What London Drinks.

In a recent ease at the Kensington Petty Sessions the well-known refreshment contractors, Messrs. Spiers & Pond, caterers to the Victorian Exhibition, were summoned at the instigation of the Kensington vestry for selling a sample of brandy and two samples of whisky which w’ere not of the nature, substance and quality of the article demanded. The defense set up was the extraordinary one that in one case a barmaid had emptied into the brandy and whisky decanters the remaining portion of a glass of brandy and water and also a portion of a glass of whisky and water left on the counter by customers. In the case of the other sample the barmaid had, in consequence of a complaint w hich had been made to her that the stock of the bar under her charge was unsatisfactory, put water Into the siphon which supplied the tap from which the sample of whisky was purchased. The bench Inflicted a penalty of £ls. Apart from the fact that the spirits were adulterated, the practice of emptying the leavings of customers’ glasses into the vessels holding the spirits for public supply Is a disgusting and filthy and dangerous one, and the vestry of Kensington deserve the unqualified thanks of the public for the action which they took.—London Lancet.