Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-07-08
THIRSTY NEW WORKERS
Another Dry Sunday Experienc-
 ed on Manhattan Island.
TRICKS TO BVADE LICENSE LAWS.

| Founders Could Pass the Side Doors and
 Order "Two Up"- Growlers In Disguise.
 NEW YORK. July S.-It was pitched | battle yesterday between tho police and | the saloon keepers. On one hand thcro | was, generally speaking, a sincere effort | to enforce the excise law; on tho other n , dOggCd determination to violate it. In some instances it was plain that the police | were making the old compromise between | friendship and duty; but, taken all in all, | the struggle was genuine ono, and ] brought into play the relative powers of | tho opposing forces. UnQucstiOnably tho saloon keepers scored a victory. Hundreds of them did business in spite of the police. Arrests in plenty were made, and police ! guards were placed at the doors of rebel liOus groggcrics.
 | Front and side doors were closed, shades | were raised, revealing the interiors, and | all tho outward evidences of law and order | were maintained. ! Still the liquor traffic went on and tho | police apparently were powcrlcss to stop | | it. That was the situation yesterday. In | the sense of a general enforcement of the | excise law it was not dry Sunday.
 Yet there were thousands and thousands | of thirsty mortals who could not see it that way. To such lucklcss ones who did not know ''thc man on the door, or were not up to the nnumcrablc tricks that were being played on the police, the day must have seemed truly dry. But drink was like money. There Was plenty of it, and
 in order to get it you had only to know | how.
 The stranger might have travelled the : whole town over and retired from tho
 search with coated tongue. But the
 Monte CristO with q 'man on the dOor'' . acquaintance found that a world of intox-
 icantS was his.
 ? Tricks to Get Drinks. l It was the saloons on the side streets !. that did most of the business, and the l hCathrn Chincc wasn't in it with them t for the dark tricks and peculiar ways they
 employed to Outwit the bluccoats. A good - rXample was furnished by the saloon of l. OK -Asscmblyman Michael Callahan, in n Chatham square. There is a cigar store Q next door, and q rear door of this leads to # Callahan's back yard.
 u Never before in the history of that to-
 baccn shop did SO many customers pass q over its thrrShOld-and customers with n market baskets, satChcls, paper bags and t every imaginable receptacle in which q
 "growlcr' of beer could be carried; for
 it was beer for which they went Of
 course they didn't get it in the cigar store. | The fountain of amber fluid Was flowing a in Callahan back yard. There an awning
 had been stretched, and all the category $ of drinks Was free air to anybody t who had the price.
 n The saloons that closed their front C rooms but sold drinks in a back apart t. mrnt were numerous. This was the most d general form of deception. To do this tho
 saloon keeper in many instances had to e take a next door ncighbor into his conf 's dcncc or his pay, and through the adjoin- If ing house the stream of "growlcrs'' and ', thirsty ones would make their way to the
 rear room of the saloon, climbing over the
 back fence on ladder. The return trip,
 after q prolonged courtShip of the liquors, h was frequently attended by hard falls and ., | broken heads.
 d The guards placed at saloon entrances I. found that their intended tactics had ,d been fnrr>tnIlrd. Hitherto the policeman t. has watched his chance and dartcd after ,n d customer into a saloon in hope of detect f. ing tE" bartender in the act of selling. T.. Side Doors Double Guarded. lS This would be sufficient to constitute a
 case of exposure under the law. some
 times the door would be slammed in the
 policcmuns face, but by putting his foot m against it he could catch a glimpse of the in interior that served him for the purpose l4 of evidence. A great many of the saloon ny keepers put a stop tn this yesterday by tt placing guard of two or three men at nd their doors.
 nd The customer would pass in and stand
 
 cd the inner door. At the same time the
 saloon keepers forces would block Nlc
 doorway. At a given signal the inner
 door would fly open and tho customer
 dart in. The bluccoat could not get past m the line of buffers ill tim" to put his No " 12 against the closing door. It was TO-
 markahly quick work, and as the day II wore on and practice brought perfection
 there wasn't the slightest show for the in 'h trudin% policeman. It became a game O hS freeze out, in which the saloon keeper wiG
 u sure winner.
 100 One rumsrlcr in the Fourth ward car an rrd on huSn, Ss in q loft at the top of tho
 house. He did q rushing tradc and be la, fore the day ended this lofty bnrroOm was cir dubbed the 'rnnf garden" Nearly ever.
 saloon in the ncighhurhOod sold more o ad less during the day, occasionally closing $ q up SD as to get the police to move off il of some other direction. Scarcely would thu
 policeman be around tho corner when th e. side door, or whatever tho way of cntranc ar Was. would open again, and drinks would ui- flow aS before.
 inc There WaS one place in the Fourt h ware
 that was really closed. It is the salool lit on the corner of Oak and James streets arg It Was sold out Friday under foreclosure tho On the avenues there was a pretty gen al cral observance of the law. It seemed a ,n if the proprictOrS of those places had actrt
 
 - had closed up all along the line. Ther was a break !lcrc and there, however, ;l was attrStCti by the occasional cntranc or exit of wayfarcr from q hallway, O the still more conclusive evidence of Il sll> picious looking market basket or port mantcau. Men and women with travclin bags in hand were unusually numcrOu on the streets.
 Tho bars of the uptown hotels wcro a closed. Guests were served with drink only when they ordered a meal. Somc ( these ropHsts were too light to satisfy tn appetite of a hungry sparrow, but the hC tel keepers said that nobody had tho rigf
 to dictate how much a man should ca ., With this dictum as their guide tho sal GI of cocktails ginrickios and "cobwcb cha: 4 CTS" went on without any serious intol Dl. ruption. One ingenious device for cva(
 ing the law was practccd perhaps mol
 than any other. It was the service -. brandy or somc other spirituous liquC
 with black coffee.
 An English Dramatist Dead.
 LONDON, July 9.-Paul Merritt, the dran
 atist, is dead.