Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1891-03-27
zne PRICE OF WHISKY.
yot Greater Than at Least Ono Con-
sumer Is willing to Pay.

NOT Greater IMAM at Least ono Con-
sumner Is willing to Pay.
There is no such thing as legitimate
l5-cent whisky in this country" said
nan with o mathematical turn OF mind,
20 New York Sun reporter. ''Now
oolx at the matter fairly. Tie bcst OF
whisky is worth how muchp Eight
dollars a gallon, say. That is allowing
or eight years Of evaporation on
liquor worth new at the distillery s. or
IA gallon. These are liberal figures,
more liberal really than the facts
warrant, and eight-year-old whisky is
40 better than five-year-old. Good
liquor experts win vouch for the state
ment that liquor in the wood does not
improve bit after five years, and
hat no improvement goes on at all
after bottling.
"A fair average drink in a Is cent
house is one fluid ounce or one-six-
eenth OF pint. Take gill of liquor
and divide it into four drinks and you
will see that each OF them is fair
lrink-not dose for snake bites but
more than we'll brought up man will
lake in friends house. Now figure
Il up. Sixteen drinks at Is cents is
-. 40 pint. That makes 1920 for
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 1890, which one would think
would be a 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 $1.5 to So a gallon.
Now say that the seller of cheap
whisky gets only three drinks out of
gill, he is then getting $9.5 gallon,
which would be more than so per cent
profit If he paid Sc gallon for his
liquor. II he pays So 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 well, even TO the man who
keeps dead house and sells alleged
whisky at cents a drink and two
drinks TO a gill. He gets So 20 a gall
lon for stuff which costs him $l.25
gallon. ! am not Joking. Stuff sold
as whisky and made of spirits, water
and havoring extracts can be bought
at wholesale for 81. % a gallon, or even
less, and it has paid 90 cents a 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 a practical consumer in reply 10
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 a small percentage only of those who
start in the business, and it is true that
those men who make good deal OF
money, That is TO say the prizes are
high but there arc many blanks. Now,
unless the prizes were high there would
be fewer men TO start in the business.
am satisfied with matters as they are
and for this reason: II | want coat,
Il gill of turpentine or pound of oakum
| have, perhaps, to make inquiries and
travel several blocks. or even to another
part OF the city. II ! want drink OF
whisky | seldom have TO 60 further
than the next corner. For this con-
venience / am willing to pay. The
few cents extra that | pay for whisky
goes to make my life more comfortable,
for unless the profits were great there
would be much fewer saloons"