Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1893-05-09
The DRINK BILL OR
KNOXVILLE, Tenn.
Careful Figures Compiled by a
Newspaper.
STvENTY-NINE SALOONS.
Over Thirteen Hundred Thousand
Dollars Disposed of Annu-
ally for Liquors In
That Town.
From the Knoxville CrennD Journal, Feb. %,
lRq3

From the Knoxville CTenn.l Journal, Feb. %,
1893.
1t costs the retail liquor dealers of
Knoxville not less than S1.S5 per day
to sell the stuff that cheers and then in
ebriates.
There are seventv-nine saloons in
Knoxville. all but two being in the city
proper West Knoxville being honored
with those, both of them located near
the AsSlnm street railroad. Thus they
pay an average Of S15 per day for all ex-
penses including licenses, rent, gas,
electric light. help and incidental ex-
penses. This is the estimate of man
who is in the business. Some of them
get along on 81. 81 or 81 per day. but Il
majority pay SO or more. This does
not include the interest on money in
vested.
The total for the year is s352.525. OF
this amount Sl7.2T0 goes for the state
and county ard city licenses govern
ment tax, merchants. privilege tax and
registers fees
They would go out of business mighty
quick if they were not earning six per
cent. interest on the money invested
clear of all expenses. But few of them
earn a. little. say they average seven
per cent and it is safe to- say that there
is S100. eco invested in stocks, and fix
lures. Seven per cent on this amount
would he $1,000 which added to the
S352. .525 would make S359,525; which
must come out of the pockets of those
who indulge every year. Three-fourths
of this amount $3.50 644. IS. is spent by
citizens of Knoxville, the other fourth
coming from visitors.
This does not include the beer. wines
and liquors consumed at private houses
which are bought at wholesale in
Knoxville and foreign markets. Hun
dreds of the best families in the city
have beer delivered at their houses.
once, twice or three times Il week, and
numbers of them import their rare
wines, liquors and cordials direct from
Europe or buy them in New York Or
Philadelphia.
What their intoxicants cost is not in
cluded in the retail sales of the bar 1t
would be safe to estimate that the i'm
ported goods cost the consumers total
of $50, 600 per year. Rhere are few
w llIC CSllii q III yOu wan A4tN''
them in every wealthy and civilized
town-that contain rare old vintageS
worth a weeks salary per bottle. In some
of these cellars you will find, if you are
invited to voyage of discovery, old
Bourbon and Lincoln county whiskies
with cob webs and strings thrown in,
the vintage of ten, twenty and thirty
years ago, Thus the private consumption
of strong drink in the good old town of
Knoxville costs in aggregate s3le,644. rs
per annum. The population of the city
is now less than 40 900 and the annual
consumption of streng drink costs the
people $3.50 per capita. AS only about &c
per cent. or 5000, ever indulge at all it
costs those who do $780, SO per capita.
Some spend as much as that in a day
others win not spend 80 in year, yet
they take an occasional drink.
| The wholesale liquor trade and the
trade in beer, the goods going for the
most part miles beyond the limits of
the retail territory, amounts to a round
million annually, making grand total
of 81, ,319,6 ,644.15. The amount of capital
invested is not far from a million dol
lars, according to the most accurate re-
ports at hand.