Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-06-18
STOLtN BOTTLES AND BASKETS.
Dealers Buying Their o Sn Property

dealers guy ing I6elH q - n Property
in Despair OF Preventing theft.
"It's pretty rough on a man to compel btu
to buy his own property" an officer of the Nea
York Bottling Company SAID referring to ths
fact that 1t Is common occurrence for link
dealers TO sell to botJlers ana manufacturers OF
mineral waters bottles bearing the imprint O:
the buyer blown In the glass. It appears that
for many years the laws for the prevention OF
the stealing or bottles have been practically a
dead letter. The practice OF the business is TO
deliver the filled bottles to customers without
taking any deposit for the bottles The drivers
OF the wagons are expected to collect from their
customers all these bottles when the contents
have been Sold But 1t often happens that the
driver cannot get his bottles back. This Is par
tlcularly the case where retail liquor business
Is done. A customer desires to buy some liquor
and has no bottle. IL is very handy for the
liquor dealer to lend soda water or lager beer
bottle. which probably will never be returned
In the course OF season the bottles missed In
this way become considerable loss. One bot
ting concern loses about s. 600 per year.
The law provides that the possession of bot
the poss essoris not the owner, renders the pos
SCISSOR liable to prosecution. But the law has
proved dead letter, and owners have been un,
able to seize their own property. for the reason
that the junk men claim that In some cases bar.
Keepers charge deposit on the bottles lent.
which is equivalent to sale. In consequence
Of this difficulty OF enforcing the law the bot
ties find their way quickly TO the junk shops.
and from there are sold either TO the Original
owners or to others. Therei is no bottling estab-
!ishment that has not In its possession bottles
the reporter that he procured peculiar lot or
laoelS tor his bottles and began to SAL tue con-
tents. when he found the bottles disappearing
rapidly. Before he had put upon the market
all the bottles Of that kind he had intended TO
use for the season he began to buy them back
from the junk men.
Efforts have been made to seize the bottles in
the possession of the Junkmen, but, while this
might succeed in few Cases, the result has
been to drive the junkmen to sell the bottles
out OF the city. The owners Of the stolen bottles
their own bottles back from the 1unkmen than
to buy new bottles from the manufacturers
Soda water bottles cost about S. so per gross
wired ready for use Lager beer bottles cost
worth much more than what they contain. Yet
one driver has been known to lose 157 dozen
bottles In month. When the dealers notice
that customer loses great many bottles they
Will refuse to serve him. One hotel keeper near
the canal basin has found 1t difficult to get
served with coda water or lager beer In bottles.
The reason Is that the boatmen buy LIQUOR 10
small quantities and borrow bottles to put it In,
Sometimes the drivers OF wagons selling boz
tied stuff steal the bottles. One man was de-
1 Zee staRng Gay on during which he visited
lor his own benefit. Sometimes when different
drivers serve the same hotel or bar room they
WILL steal one anothers b0ttles
The cOStliest bottles In use are the sfnhon
bottles in which seltzer water is sold. They are
worth about so cents each. Recently a propri-
eIor OF this sort OF merchandise found junk
man who had accumulated cask OF his boz
Ties. An effort to recover the property proved
futile, Of cause the junkman declared that each
Dottle had been substantially sold, beca use q
deposit had been left with the drugpisf; or mar.
room keeper from whom the settler water was
bought. All the bottlers say that the loss OF
p0Ctles Is serious drawback In the business
and eats up large share OF the profits. Com.
petition Is so great that no dealer has vet dared
70 enforce q strict return Of his bottles. An
nave thus Tar been content with simply refus.
hg 70 sell TO customers who lost unlsnaIly
arge numbers OF bottles. In England the h,f,
Ties are sold as well as the CONTENTS Wv"
Some time ago the oyster dealers were snh.
baskets that they were obliged To mafs az ci an
la,ngemenG Dy which each dealer pledged him.
sen not 10 lend basket The result Was that
d n0 DasKeg was lent and each dealer could ne. |
COg61Z0 his OWN p Nbsya