Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-11-04
THE ESPEAK-EASY EVIL
How These Places of Illegal Liquor
Selling Are Conducted.
THEY THRIVE IN MILL DISTRICTS.
EOcated in Quiet Places Where COppers
Can't Disturb Them.
A REPORTER'S EXPERIENCE RELATED

desires most that which is forbidden. His
first act put on record was an example of
this propensity. His ambition to overcome
difficulties ineites him to the pursuit of the
dangerous and unlawful. 1t is this lido
syncratic quality which furnishes lucrative
support to the ''speak-easy." A topper who
climbs over back fence, goes down a dark
stairwsy, gropes through damp cellar and
finds the open sesame to two or three locked
DOORS counts the consequent dram a great
deal more toothsome and delightful than if
he plucked it of an open bar.
The speak-easy is essentially a Sunday in
stitutlon. When every licensed saloon is
Theoretically sealed it softly opens its noise
less door to the thirsty. The man who
drinks habitually does not feel well if he
misses one day in the seven. Why does be
not buy his liquor on Saturday evening and
take it home for Sunday consump mption? The
rich man does, for the rich man has an ice
box and a way of ordering his own house
hold affairs. The mill man or the day la
borer or the clerk living at a boarding house
has no ice box, and if he carries a bottle
home either his spouse may throw it out of
the back door, or the landlady may request
him, in dulcet tones, to locate largely else
where. Now and then it even happens that
Pat or Johann or Antonio buvs his bottle or
his keg and carries it home on Saturday
evening. But, then, alas, he and few of
his crony neighbors are too apt to make an
end Of l. before the Sabbath day dawns
Then, after all, they resort to the speak-easy
before the day closes. The speak-easy is
therefore the resort of the poor man, who
finds himself without lieuor on Sunday and
thinks he must have Some
MEN ARE CoNvIVIAL.
Moreover, a man, unless he be con-
6rmed drunkard, does not like to drink
alone. He wants others to drink with him;
he desires their jollity to meet his, and
must have an auditor or two as the object of
his maudlin conversation. The speak-easy
il therefore the resort of the gregarious.
The illegal drinking resort has none but
evil features. The spirits sold are always
vile. The frequenter is not likely to be dis
eliminating. The keeper looks upon him
self as a public benefactor. He is confer
ring great favor upon the patron to fur
nish him with any sort of liquor on Sunday.
Whisky is bought at from so cents to 81 so
per gallon, and it tastes like alcohol and
CAYENNE pepper. The more it burns his
throat the better the drinker considers it to
be. "Ah. that takes holt he says, with
elistening ewes and a broad smack of the
iips; "a fellow knows he's been drinkin'
somethin'."
The speak-easy makes many drunkards.
The keeper of licensed house fears to sell
TO an intoxicated man, lest it be brought
against him when the license court sits
again in solemn judgment Yet it is true
that many of the drunken men arrested on
Saturday night bought their liquor from
licensees They bought it BY the bottle or
keg. however, and drank it before thev
reached home. When man becomes drunk
in a speak-easy on Sunday he is folded up
in a corner and left to snooze until nightfall.
The keeper does not wish to turn him out
as an advertisement by daylight.
WHO ARE PRoPRIEToRs.
As rule the proprietor of speak-easy is
a loafer or a widow. The loafer was proba-
blv saloon keeper or bartender before the
Brooks law cut him of, and he detests work
He sells whisky because it has become his
second nature to 40 so. He is possessed of
an uncoDquersble desire to dispense strong
drink. The widow was. nine times out of
ten, the wife once of a saloon keeper or bar
tender who was cut of, not by Brooks, but
bv the gentleman who rides the male horse
She must get a living for herself and the
children and she knows no other way to
do it.
The police say that these people rarely re-
form. When arrested they are often ready
to promise, on q stack of Bibles as high as
the Court House tower, nevsr to sell another
drop as long as they live. The promise is
kept-for few weeks; and then again COM
plaint comes to Inspector McAleese that the
incorrigible is at his old tricks. This is one
of the queer characteristics of person who
mas once acquired the habit of selling
liquor. 1t becomes an appetite, as incur
able as the habit of an opium eater. 1t is
like the thirst of a tiger which has once
tasted human blood. After that it is man
eater until man Stays it. Nevertheless the
fact is unaceountable or rather incapable of |
analysis and explanation.
In majority of the instances, where the |
police raid speak-easy, the person selling |
is found to be woman. Not always, how |
ever, is she widow or the real proprietor |
The owner is often a man, who hides behind |
his wife's apron. He reasons that his Gus |
toners will be less likely to betray a woman |
than a man.
THICK IN MILL DISTRICTS.
The information held by the police shows
that spcak-easies are the most numerous in
those parts of the city where the mills are To-
Gated. The Southside swarms with them,
and they are well patronized. There are
many IN the west end of that side of the
river where there are no licensed saloons.
Lawrenceville is beset with them. where
they are found in alleys and side streets.
Indeed, the Ninth, Tenth, Twelfth and Fif-
teenth wards, from the Union Depot to the
cemetery, comprise that section of the city
which is the hotbed of speak-easyism. The
greater number are on Spruce and MuI-
berry alleys. Again, many are located in
that part of the city called Soho. Here and
there, however, in all parts OF the CITY. the
speak-easy NAV be found. 1t is inst as
likely to exist in the shadow of licensed
house as in a district where saloons have
been prohibited. They take their seat even
under the nose of police station. One of
the largest and best patronized in the city is
in basement on Fourth avenue, in the
First ward. The visitor descends from the
sidewalk to a dark space under stone stair
wav. He knocks three times on a door. and
il soon opens cautiously. If the visitor is
known he enters a musty hall, where empty
beer boxes are heaped up. Turning aside
into a bare and dimly-lighted room. he
passes through another door into a large
rear apartment. The gas burns brightly.
there is talking and laughter, chairs are
plenty. and in the center of the room stands
long table.
STUFF BOUGHT BY THE QUART.
The visitor sits at the table, and if he
drinks beer, he gets a quart bottle for 25
cents. 1t is fresh and cold, and he NAV sit
as long as he likes. The sound of the voice
can scarcely reach the street from this base
meut apartment, and there is little restraint
on talking or singing 1t is not in that
sense. a speak-easy, for the keeper rarely
thinks it necessary to warn the boys to keep
ouiet There are often, on Sunday morn
;1,r or evening as MANY as score of men in |
this place.