Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 August 1874 — Very Peculiar Jellies. [ARTICLE]

Very Peculiar Jellies.

Jellies, .generally,-are frauds. They may be described, indeed, as base, double frauds. They are not what they seem, either in size of tumbler or in quality of article. They look beautiful and tempting, and accomplish that peculiar feat of making one’s mouth water,as speedily as anything. Every lady visitor to a restaurant looks with envy at the clear, bright color of the jellies that occupy the post of honor on the top of the pickle bottles in. the windows of the establish: ment. If she be a visitor from thecountry she generally insists that her husband shall cany home a sample, to be tested on the’ first opportunity. Woman-like she “ learns,” -with Goldsmith’s heroine, “ too late that men betray.” Her beautiful currant jelly is a villainous mixture.

It has no more relationship to the currant jelly which she has stored in her cupboard than butyric acid has with truth. In fact, it has no connection, not even’Ot the most distant kind, with currants at all. . Jellies and canned fruits constitute one of tlie most grossly adulterated branches of the manufacturer’s business. They are made.principally at the East, although there are some manufactories in the West. But by far the greater proportion of the jellies in general use which are sold in tumblers arc manufactured by a few firms who carry oft extensive works in New’ York, Philadelphia and other Eastern points. The business has grown to immense proportions. It is to-day so large that the supply of fruit is altogether inadequate to meet the demand— - - . ■ The result is that there has been a general resort on the part of jelly manufacturers to processes of adulteration. In this case, unfortunately, the articles used are not always harmless. They are often very deleterious, always most offensive. In jellies, calves’ feet glue is the principal thing used, which, sweetened with sugar and colored by aniline dyes, is passed oft upon the innocent public as being the very fruit itself. Of course the very general adulteration enables the manufacturer to sell a tumbler of currant jelly to the purchaserat far less than would have to be pnicl if nothing but the “ Simon pure” article was used. But the advantage thus obtained by the consumer of a cheap article is one not worth possessing. It would be far better to pay the price necessary to secure the pure currant jelly than to be defrauded by paying a less sum for a foul compound, consisting principally of glue, with some dangerous chemical preparation thrown in to give the glue the necessary color. But “ the race of fools is immortal ;” and the genealogy of knaves stretches back to the flood, and will continue unto the coming of the millennium, The value of currant and other fruit jellies consists principally in the citric, melic and tartaric acids that they contain. The artificial jellies are altogether innocent of any of these acids. They are simply glue.— Chicago Times.