AMERICAN "WHISKY."

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14044, 29 April 1920, Page 7

AMERICAN "WHISKY."

Speaking with reference to the importation of approximately 13,000 barrels', .of American whisky, now in dock waiting to be unloaded, the editor-of ''Harper's Wine and Spirit Gazette" said to a representative of the "Daily Mail"-: — "There is no objection to American grain whisky as> such, provided it is sold as American. But a good deal of inferior spirit from European..countries has also been coming into Britain lately. Oace the Customs, duties have been paid on tnis and it has been cleared, the authorities exercise no further control and are unable to say what -becomes of it or for what purpose it is being used. There is a ■widespread "belief-in the trade that after blending this cheap spirit is being sold as Scotch or Irish." Each of the 13,000 barrels imported contains' 34 gallons, and one gallon fills six standard bottles. There are two principal types of American whisky—rye, in the manufacture ot which rye is the principal cereal used, and Bourbon whisky, of which the principal ingredient is Indian corn. The harsh flavour,of the American spirit, for which the British palate has to acquire the taste, is due to its being matured in casks specially charred on the inside. Before prohibition came into force various blends of "mining camp whisky" were manufactured in the United States, lhis has been described as-having the power to "singe the hair off a cat's back at twenty yards." and as "capable of making a. rabbit stand up and spit at a rattlesnake. It is of much the same type as the deadly wood-alcohol. • More than 100 persons died, and many I others were condemned to liielong para--1 lysis or blindness in New York and neighbouring cities between Christmas and the New Year, as the result of drinking woodalcohol sold to .them as whisky. Many arrests were made in New York State, in New Jersey, and Connecticut, and finally the confession of an oil meichant, Paranelli, enabled the undertaker who supplied the spirit originally to be caught Paranelli stated that he was approached by a saloon-keeper friend, who asked him to get some whisky for Christmas. -Not bavin- any, he passed on the order to a "rocer, Plica, also without supplies. He sent the order to two associates, also Italians, named Licenzio and Delorno. Thev passed it to a Brooklyn chemist, who telephoned it to an Italian undertaker, Romanelli. This man, according to 1 aranelli, agreed to supply the liquor, and despatched five barrels, three of wmch were sent to Hartford. Connecticut, and the other two to a dealer in the Bronx, New York City. The dealer visited Paranelli the same dav and produced a bottle of the liquid, saving he thought that it was 'bad. Paranelli took a sample to the chemist, who said that it was wood-alcohol, and a deadly poison. The frightened agent then telephoned to his Hartford friend and warned him of the nature of the "whiskv." But he was told that a large quantity bad been sold in Hartford itself and the remainder sent to Chicopee, Massachusetts. The same evening reports be«an to appear in the New York evening newspapers of persons dying at Hartford and Chicopee after drinking a certain liquor, and Paranelli, becoming panicstricken, shut -up his shop and %vent into hiain". From the undertaker's story it appears that the alcohol was received ,by ' him in bulk'in iron containers. ■• It was intended for embalming. He put it m wooden barrels-and sold it to Paranelli as whisky. The price was £2OO a barrel, Paranelli Teceivmg 10 per cent, commission. He insisted that he sent the, liquid as'whisky in good; faith, and did all he could'to if when he learned its ' '> '•