By a new law, entitled the Sale-of-Food-and-Drugs Act, the Commissioners of Customs in England are given extraordinary powers in regard to the stoppage of imports of adulterated edible goods. A remarkable correspondence between the Commissioners and a firm of London tea-merchants has recently been published, much to the horror of the devotees of the cup that cheers. The firm inquired whether the Commissioners meant to confiscate all adulterated tea after Jan. 1, and explained that such a course would put a summary stop to the supply of green tea, inasmuch as every particle of that tea is “faced.” “Faced” is a pleasing paraphrase for “adulterated.” Since this rather startling disclosure the London Times has published a number of letters pro and con. Black tea is the leaf in its natural state. Most of the varieties are, however, too mild to satisfy a palate used to pickles, mustard, pepper sauces, and like condiments. The dealers, therefore, kindly poison the leaf, and produce what they are pleased to advertise as “a superior quality of green tea.” At one time ten pounds of green tea were sold in the American market for every pound imported. The process of adulteration was performed at the seaboard. A long cylinder, turning slowly over a fire, was half-filled with black tea. Then handfuls of turmeric, indigo, and other poisonous matter was thrown in. After the whole had been cooked together the stuff came out as green tea. Each leaf was perhaps coated with copper! Since then “Chinese cheap labor” has supplanted Caucassian cunning. The Mongolian ships the tea already greened, and so saves the importer trouble. The change, however, is a bad one for the consumer. The almond-eyed heathen have surpassed their Christian teachers in the art of adulteration. A member of a Manchester tea firm writes to the London Times that the coloring matter used is a “filthy compound” of silicate of magnesium, Prussian blue, “and other dirt,” and that the leaves colored are faded and old, and mixed with leaves of a plant bearing the suggestive name of “lie tea.” The “lie tea,” we may add, flourishes in New Jersey, and is carefully cultivated there—it is not difficult to surmise why. There is such a thing as pure green tea, but it is much weaker than the artificial stuff, and has to be prepared by a process that is long and costly. It is rarely exported from China. Recent reformers have argued that excessive tea-drinking does as much harm to women as excessive consumption of alcohol does to men. The comparison of the two may be an exaggeration, but it is not to be denied that tea has many victims, and that they, one and all, prefer it in its poisoned state.—Chicago Tribune.