Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1877-08-10
From the Christian | MON.

There is no one in the City Of New York
if there is any one in the country, who
knows as much about the liquor traihc as
Captain Oliver COtter. lie was formerly
large liquor dealer, and at one time, ii we
mistake not, Secretary of the Brooklyn
Liquor Dealers Association. Converted
during the womens temperance movement,
he abandoned his profitable trade, destroying
several thousand of dollars worth OF his
liquor, and devoted himself to the task oil
combating the liquor business. lie has re-
duced the liquor shops of Brooklyn one
third by his vigorous campaign. Last week,
a reporter of the Christian Union called on
him. lie gives the following report of his
interview:
There are, said Captain Oliver Cotter,
ten thousand places where liquor is
sold in New York. five thousand of which
are unlicensed, and many of them unknown
to the police. In my late Investigation |
have found liquor sold on the sly in many
drug stores, in candy stores, cigar stores,
TOW stores, and houses of ill-repute. If | was
ASKED to point out the worst hquor-selling
district in the city should mention Greene
and Crosby Streets, and the Bowery from
Grand to Blocker; Greenwich and Wash
ington near the Battery Division street,
Delaney, Lewis, and part of Grand streets.
In many OF these streets have seen liquor
sold to, and drank by, children of both
sexes, from eight to fourteen years of age.
They would generally purchase it in beer
saloons, or in the low corner groceries fifty
termed "groggeries. for it is chiefly by the
sale Of liquor that such places exist. In Or
ange street, an east side thOroughfare, met a
little girl not more than seven years old car
rying large bottle filled with an adulteration
which she said was ten cents worth OF
whiskey, so poisonously strong that it burnt
the lips on tasting it. There were traces Of
beauty about her fair young face that the
thick coating of dirt it wore could not wholly
conceal Her hair was uncombed, her cloth
ing rags She lived in one of the tenements
near by, and told me she was getting the
LIQUOR for her mother l noticed the sale of
liquor to children more particularly in the
Fourth, Sixth and Fourteenth wards than in
any other part of the city; in Grand, Centre,
Oak, Roosevelt, Water streets, and the
neighborhood of FRANKLIN Square, it prevail
ed TO a great extent
discovered and interviewed all cIosscs
or c,ro;,ne,. ,boncb the ,rinc;noI nation
oi;,;as vortb mentioning are tho Germans
Eranob Ir;sb and Italians Drinl inc i
general among the Germans. Whole fami-
70 dr;rL LAGER becr in nearly every case
from the infant in arms to the AGED prandsire'
Sometimes n meal will consist Of nothing but
tho hard heavy black bread Germans are
90 fond of and LAGER beer No matter how
moor thew NAV be they will MANAGE to get
their lager. i remember talking to woman
~ tho iooIisbness of the habit She gave as
-o,son that water was too warm and she
Id not a ,ford IN buv ice but the bccr sbe
49,, ,.as ,rarmcr than the yatcr Tho
ItaI;ans nr;ncinallv 10 he found in Crosby
street between Blocker and Grand, all drink
To excess. Some of them make business of
visiting :he beer-saloons carly in the morn
ing and taking the Complying from the
beer kegs left over night on the sidewalk.
This stuff they retail to their brethren at one
cent n glass Rag pickers. day laborers. or
gan grinders, and the lower class of workers
among their countrymen are their custom
ers. Their taste for eating is on a par with
their drinking habits from swill-barrels
thew nick out meats that are tainted and
cook them after disiniectine them in some
peculiar manner known TO themselves.
talked with one OF them, more intelligent
than the rest, on this subject. In his broken
language he curiously justified his country
men. Americana, said he, 'eat &c bird
and &c game after it get old, and zay keep it
till it get old before gay eat it; Just 50 re
Italian lie like his meat Just as old YOU
see" | found the Frenchmen the most
temerate in the use of liquors. They drink
claret or what is nearly always an imita-
finn of claret also cognac with their coffee.
There is yery little drunkenness amongst
them. and they are of the most social dispo-
sition. The Irish drink hot whskey in cold
weather and cold whskev in warm weather.
If asked WHY these foreigners drink |
should say the Germans because it has be
come habit, the Italians because they love
iouor and represent chiefly the lower order
of their race. the French because they arc
socially inclined, and the Irish to cheer up
their spirits under real or far cicd misfor-
time. Ii il untrue, however, that there is
az mucb drinking among Germans in Ger
MANY as there Is amongst them IN tins cOun-
try here il seems to have become A habit
and is far more prevalent, 20 | have been
told by Germans themselves, than it is in
the .siaderlanI."
oo,, visit toC,rev Island round
49, ,o;nc ON oncnlv IN sunday nrrcr-
uS 70 r. tho hotels twenty.h,, ncnts
h hoon ahoracd Cnr admission The revenue
t. .s tho haII-room alone Was s30O IN sim
,'J Jar The yis;tnrs were tho most DEGRADED
and wicked class of both sexes, people whom