Spices and How to Know Them

by Walter M. Gibbs

At once the source, and end, the test of Art.”

When the spice grinder will consider how hard it is to hide the spark of Nature, whoever yields reward to him who seeks and loves her best, and when the retail dealer of spices will remember that there is another man on the other side of the counter who is entitled to his money’s worth, then, and not until then, will the evil of the adulteration of spices be done away with. A merchant who will, knowingly, sell to his customer adulterated spices at the value of pure goods is worse than a thief, because he not only robs them of their money but gives them poison for their stomach.

Spice millers should not be counterfeiters! How can they afford to imperil their reputation by advertising “scheme goods”? Let them grind their spices to give Nature’s flavors as they grow in the balmy forests of the East Indies. Let them not mix these spices to suit the price of the retail dealer, but grind them pure, to please the tongue and the palate, and then hang out their sign, as their business would suggest, as spice millers or grinders, instead of “spice manufacturers.” If the retail dealer of adulterated spices trusts a customer who will not pay his indebtedness, he calls the man a rogue, but forgets that the greater rogue is himself; that his customer has the law on his side, and that his best witness is the adulterated goods which were sold him; furthermore, this dealer is teaching to the clerk whom he has taken into his employ, with a promise to teach the young man the trade and good business principles of an honest merchant, the trade of a thief, and as such teaches him to rob his employer. If the merchant breaks his part of the contract, can he expect the clerk to keep his? If the clerk, trained by the dealer in dishonesty, steals from the cash-drawer, would it be right to discharge him with a tarnish on the good name he had when he entered such employ? Let the dealer keep pure goods, and teach his clerk their merit. By so doing, he can be twice armed when he is selling in competition with a dealer of adulterations.

Let not the merchant profess to seek after the prosperity of the country; let him wonder not that business is dull; that labor is unemployed; that enterprise is dead, when he is doing all he can to destroy business and commercial prosperity by undermining the public confidence, which is the foundation upon which all commercial enterprise rests. Nothing is more essential to business prosperity than a confidence that prosperous, existing conditions will remain unchanged. He who is helping to destroy that confidence makes himself a stumbling block in the public highway of humanity and, as such, is a detriment to mankind. He is the greatest enemy to self that humanity can produce. He is like a vine which climbs the tree and obtains its life by sucking the life of that to which it clings. No man can be a good citizen who will wrong his fellow man simply because the laws of the country will protect him or, in other words, will not punish him for such wrongdoing. A miller or retail dealer of mixed or adulterated spices is as much a criminal as the man who has ingenuity enough to shape a coin from alloy and stamp it as a legal standard, or as one who counterfeits a bank note, for all are guilty of illegal acts to obtain wealth. The government punishes the counterfeiter of money, but the dealer in adulterated goods is allowed freedom. The government will grant a patent for the latest improvement in machinery for mixing spices, but it will not grant a patent for a die to counterfeit bank notes.

The dealing in adulterations is not confined to the poorer dealers. Among those who are guilty of this wrong we find the wealthy and those professing to be Christians—men who shudder at a dishonest act, but they apparently forget their duty to God and man. Is not such conduct mockery? Is it not offensive to God? If not, where could we find that which would be? Let men dare to do right if they wish to be successful and respected. Let them dare to do right for the sake of their fellow man who is striving for an honest living. Let them dare to do right and not wait for the law to compel them. Let them remember that there is something in an honest name which they cannot afford to lose! To the consumer of spices, this should be said: Be willing your grocer should live and obtain a profit for his work. Do not compel him to handle adulterated goods by quoting him the price of his neighbor dealer who sells the adulterated stock. Spices of high order are more costly, but are cheap to the consumer by reason of excess of flavor and strength. Let your dealer know you can appreciate a good article and, if he handles adulterated goods, remind him “that he may fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but he can’t fool all of the people all of the time.” [^[1]]As an illustration of the extent of the adulteration of spices, the fact may be cited that one firm in New York City used and put upon the market in their spices more than 5,000 pounds of cocoanut shells. To show how bold the custom has become, the following quotation is copied from a journal devoted to spices:

“All necessary information for spice manufacturing supplied.”

And the following advertisements appear:

“Manufacturers of spice mixtures and mustard. Goods made to order for wholesale.”

“Grocers’ spice mixtures and cayenne pepper a specialty.”

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