Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1891-03-26
THE PRICE OF WHISKY.
Not Greater Than At Least One Con.
sumner Is willing to Pay.

Not Greater Than At Least One Con.
sumner Is willing to Pay.
There is no such thing as legitimate
15-cent whisky in this country" said a
man with mathematical turn OF mind.
to New York Sun reporter. Now
look at the matter fairly. The best of
whisky is worth how much? Eight
dollars a gallon, say. That is allowing
for eight years of evaporation on
liquor worth new at the distillery 50 or
g. a gallon. These are liberal figures,
more liberal really than the facts
warrant, and eight-year-old whisky is
no better than five-year-old. Good
liquor experts will vouch for the state
ment that liquor in the wood does not
improve a bit after five years, and
that no improvement goes on at all
after bottling.
"a fair average drink in Is cent
house is one fluid ounce or One-six-
teenth of a pint. Take gill of liquor
and divide it into four drinks and YOU
will see that each of them is fair
drink-not dose for snake bites, but
more than we'll brought up man will
take in friends house. Now figure
it up. Sixteen drinks at Is cents is
$2.4O pint. That makes 1920 for Il
gallon. Anybody will agree that this
is an extortionate price for whisky
costing Sc or IS a gallon. At 10 cents
a drink 1913 drinks to the gallon will
net 1880, which one would think
would be good profit and should
satisfy anybody. That is the amount
obtained by men who sell 10 cent
whisky, which costs them all the way
from 81 so to s. a gallon.
Now say that the seller of cheap
whisky gets only three drinks out of /,
gill, he is then getting $3.50 gallon,
which would be more than so per cent
profit if he paid *6 a gallon for his
liquor. If he pays s. he is generous
to the wholesaler, and then you see his
profit will be more than 200 per cent.
Taking high license, bad debts and all
expenses into consideration the whisky
dealer does we'll, even to the man who
keeps a dead house and sells alleged
whisky at 5 cents a drink and two
drinks to Il gill. He gets $500 gal
lon for stuff which costs him ST. % a
gallon. am not joking. Stuff sold
as whisky and made of spirits water
and flavoring extracts can be bought
at wholesale for 1925 n gallon, or even
less, and it has paid 80 cents gallon
tax on the proof spirits contained in it.
Further, will say that lots of it sold
over the bars in this city at 10 cents
a drink, which means from IS to $40
profit on every gallon
The other side of this question, as
put by practical consumer in reply to
the mathematician was as follows:
ut is true that the profit on a glass
OF whisky is very great, but consider
: how many men start in the saloon bus
mess and are sold out. Money is made
by small percentage only of those who
start in the business, and it is true that
those men who make q good deal of
money, That is to say the prizes are
high but there are many blanks. Now
:, unless the prizes were high there would
be fewer men to start in the business.
l am satisfied with matters as they are
and for this reason: If want coat,
a gill OF turpentine or Il pound of oaknn
/ have, perhaps, to make inquiries and
,, travel several blocks, or even to another
part OF the city. If l want a drink Of
whisky I seldom have to go further
} than the next corner. For this con-
venienceI am willing to pay. The
few cents extra that l pay for whisky
goes to. make my life more comfortable
for unless the profits were great there
7 would be much fewer saloons"