Pails.—Ordinary water pails have either 2 or 3 hoops. Those not painted on the inside are preferred. Wood pulp pails give good satisfaction, and a new pail with sunken hoops is just coming into market.
Grocers’ Sundries.
Among other articles sometimes kept by the grocer, may be mentioned: Irish Moss, Anatto and other butter colorings, Licorice, Chewing Gum, Fruit Juices, Hops, Rennet, Ink, Paper and Pens, Pencils, Slates, Mucilage, Playing Cards, Beeswax, Cement, Concentrated Potash, Lye, Lime, Chalk, Oils, Kerosene, Dyes, Paints dry and mixed; Rosin, Tar, Turpentine, White Lead, Varnishes, Indigo, Glue, Putty, Powder, Shot, Caps, Wads, Axle Grease, Curry Combs, Condition Powders, Can Openers, Cordage, Coffee Mills, Bath Brick, Polishing Powder, Wick, Baskets, Boxes in Nests, Tubs, Dippers, Measures, Lemon Squeezers, Mouse Traps, Sieves, Feather Dusters, Rolling Pins, Ax Handles, Tacks, Crockery, Glass and Stone Ware, Borax, Bay Rum, Ammonia, Sponges, Camphor, Sal Soda, Perfumes, Plasters, Fly Killer Paper, Witch Hazel, and a great variety of standard drugs and proprietary medicines.
WINES AND LIQUORS.
While there are some grocers who, for various reasons do not handle these products, there are also many who keep for the family use of their customers a full line of choice wines, malt beverages, and distilled liquors. This work would therefore be incomplete without reference to these articles, and it is believed that the few facts given below concerning them will be found interesting and instructive.
WINES.
Pure wine is merely grape juice fermented. When the sugar of the grape is wholly or nearly converted by fermentation into natural vinous spirits or alcohol, the result is a STILL or DRY WINE. If the sugar is very abundant, as in overripe grapes, and a considerable portion of it remains unfermented, a SWEET WINE like Tokay or Malmsey is produced. When fermentation has proceeded to a certain stage and the liquid is bottled, so that it continues to ferment and produce carbonic acid gas, the result is an effervescent wine, as SPARKLING CHAMPAGNE. If, during fermentation, the process be arrested by the addition of alcohol, certain vegetable substances are retained in the liquid, and such wines as PORT and SHERRY are the product.
Composition of Wines.
Wines, as well as all varieties of malt and spirituous liquors, owe their intoxicating qualities to alcohol. But the medical and dietetic qualities of wine are not solely due to it; a mixture of water and alcohol, or whiskey of equal strength, has a very different effect on the animal economy. Pure wines contain also natural acids, sugar, ethers, albumen, phosphates, etc. Their value is, however, mainly determined by their “Bouquet” or flavor, produced by substances natural to the grapes, heightened and rendered more delicate by fermentation.