The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-08-11


on the Door or Whistle with Your Fore
Finger--If You Don't Like that Buy a
Dollar Share in q Stock Company and
Drink at Your Ease--Reporter Tells
How it is Done.
Let us take walk down to the Es-
SEX" said prominent official last
night to an Eagle reporter.
''The Essex well that is pretty high
toned. When and what is the ESSEX"
Come along and you'll see. You
don't want to pretend to be SO inno-
cent"
A flight Of stairs was ciimed east OF
the Manhattan and a nice suit of rooms
was entered.
It looked like q board of trade or
commercial club.
Take a seat"
The reporter took a seat, and a fine
looking oolored fellow came ambling up
as if he was INDUCING in the prelim-
lnaries to a hoe down or an old fash
toned rag.
What will you have?"
What Will you drink?
Well ] suppose I viii have to drink
water under the new dispensation.'
Not at all. Order what you want.
How would sherry flip strike your"
1T would strike me exactly where l
tive
Jim take a bottle Of sherry out OF
locker No. 81 and make us two fiips."
What the reporter thought was a joke
ended in two serious celebrating and
very palatable sherry flips; breverage
fit for a prince or a princess.
This is our new club. said the re-
nj n
join 1t. You will find us all rafting
good fellows and the club a splendid
place to get news"
"Why?"
why, because you will find people
here every night-nen who are not dull
or stupid, but men who learn good
deal every day that will be valuable to
you. ] would introduce you to these
gentlemen but l presume you know
them ALL
1T was a full fledged gentleman's
club and the reporter learned all about
il. II had 116 members already and
growing
1t costs exactly $500 to join This club
and fifty cents a month dues. The
three dollars is for box or locker
where each man keeps his liquors which
consists of a case of beer, a bottle Of
sherry and a bottle of club house
whiskey. Some of them go so far as to
d
or Cooks Imperial champagne in the
locker but they are few. The fifty
cents each month is to pay for the rent
lights, ice and attendance. The club
has a president, a secretary and an
executive board. The attendant buys
the goods for the members and thus
gets il at the wholesale rates which
the individual member could not do.
The scheme works like a charm and it
will be popular. There is only draw
back about il and that is it will be eX-
pensive TO the liberal hearted member.
Visitors must he accompanied by a
member Of the club and hence good fell
lows viii treat the visitor from their
own locker and therefore his hospital
ity will be rather expensive.
When this idea was advanced by the
reporter his host said: 81 belong to the
Cactus club, too. That is run on a diff
ferent plan and that is not as expen-
siVe"
Tell me about that
Let us have another sherry and we
will go over there"
Five minutes afterwards the reporter
and his friend were sitting at a round
table in the rooms of the Cactus club.
Give me dollar share in this cor
Germ he said to a well known ex-join-
fist, who stepped up.
The eX-jointist handed him a card
something like a meal ticket with a
row of So cts.' al the top and smaller
row of 40 cts.'' al the bottom.
Two small bottles of beer were or
dered. They were taken from a tub
of ice wafer and laid on the table.
The stock holder handed his share in
the concern to the ex-jointist who
took a pencil from his pocket and
drilled out two of the 10 cent marks and
one 5 cent mark leaving the gentleman
with only rs cents stock in the concern.
why is this cheaper than the Essex
club plan?"
because if I bring visitor here
do not necessarily have to do the treat
ing. He can buy stock in the concern
himself and be his own proprietor. !
This. in my opinion. will be the most
popular species of club. and / under |
stand there are more of them in town
now than any other kind. This is the
second highest of the five grades of
saloons that are in town"
What are the other grades?"
The other grades are the key joints. |
the houses Of prostitution and the
hootleggers."
In due time the other places were Wis
ited and life in all its colors and shades
were seen. One of the places cannot |
be described
There are seven key joints in town al
ready and men are carrying punches of
KEYS now that never carried any before. |
The key joint is a regular bar in an
APP stairs room. The furniture IS very |
common. the bar is made Of planks. |
the ice chest is a wash tub and the ta- |
bles are relics of the pioneer gambling
houses. The floor is covered with a |
muddy mixture of beer and dust, lit |
orally paved with the tin tops of beer
bottles. The tables are supplied with |
sweaty cards and broken poker chips |
and men sit around them all day play !
Ing high five for the drinks.
Each key joint has a door signal pc |
culiar to Itself At one place the door /
knob is shaken. and at another place /
the patron gives the three raps with his /,
with the back of his finger nails. This |
Is circumstantial evidence that he IS |
all right but the proprietor takes the |
further precaution 10 look at him |
through peep hole. II there IS no |
doubt about him being all right a string t
which is attached to the catch lock. and /
which extends to the bar. is drawn and |
the door is opened unto him by unseen |
hands Secret precautions are also /
taken to locate the policeman on that /
beat. EVERYTHING is cash in the key |
Joint and as they are hard 10 get into |
the natron gets enough TO last him half |
q dag before he gets out. II is the kind |
Of A Joint that causes the most intem- |
perance next to the bootlsSger.
The reporter didn't know how to get |
a bootlegser bur he went 20 one who he /
thought was posted in that respect. !
Prank" he said TO a well known |
character at midnight. where can / /
get pint of whiskey?
My room ma te has some.
4