Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-04-28
GRAVESTONES MADE.

In order to extend business and obtain
a, greater number of customers, many
large breweries are in the habit OF loan
ing money to saloon keepers handling
their beer with which to pay taxes and
other incidental expenses. The W
to secure themselves, take a chattel
mortgage on the effects of the borrower.
and the debt is usually paid off by an
| extra charge on each barrel of beer. III
the event of the customer dying or going
! out of business, the saloon fixtures be-
come the property of the brewery that
loaned the money. Among the eftects
taken by the Jackson brewery some
years ago were four marble grave stones,
each one six feet in length and three feet
in width, the rounded ends sawed neat
ly off. The inscriptions We're, by the time
the brewery secured the stone, nearly ell
legible, and showed plainly that some
effort had been made to erase them. There
is an interesting and grewsome tale in
connection with these headstones. Many
residents of the city remember Johnny
Ryan and the notorious White House
theater he operated for some years on the
lower side of Fifth street, between John
and Central avenue.
The place is now but the memory of a
generation gone before, and John Ryan,
it's manager, has been forgotten by many,
having died in 1898. TIL White House
* dS OllC VI d AiuSS III v q lioAA nv
We're numerous in this city Is years ago..
The Gem Varieties, formerly near the
corner of LongWorth and Central avenue;
Alberti's on Vine street, over the Rhine.
and the Ryan White house were recog-
nized as of one class. A continuous per-
Torrance of the variety order was given
on the stage every evening, the tables
which filled the floor of the hall were
crowded with hal drunken men and boys,
while the stage boxes and balcony We're
o-~,-. fo~ f1oco yyhn hn6 nIanfV nt
money to spend and were drunk enough
+. to pay 25 cents for a drink OF prune juice,
} misnamed port wine, or buy highly charg-
: ed cider at champagne prices. me stur-
! dy proprietor. John Ryan, stood behind
l the bar, his eagle eye penetrating to ev-
8 cry corner of the hall, and woe betiie the
]. poor, miserable, painted Wretches that die
:. not succeed in beguiling their male ad-
I mirers into spending money for wine. a
4 private policeman enforced order, and
e was REINFORCED by Ryan and his mob OF
walters when occasion demanded.
1 The bar ounte at the White House
varieties was about 25 feet in length, OF
s highly polished marble. Over this bal
!: for some years hundreds of kegs of bee
$ and barrles of the vilest liquor We're sole
o to persons who undoubtedly, drunk a:
n they were, would have hesitated before
r drinking had they known for what u.s.
r the highly polished marble had original!
r been intended.
> ON NASTY" CORNER.
: In 1892 John Ryan blossomed out as
saloon keeper, on Vine street, just below
Fifth. in one of the ramShackle fran
shanties then occupying the present sit
of the Carew building. A new order o
things had come, the white house varie
ties had been closed by the police. TIL
new place was an attractive one for no
boes and others of like ilk, for an enor
nous schooner of beer was sold for fiv
cents. John Ryan stood behind the bal
as at the White House of yore, his har
face wreathed in smiles as he raked 1
the nickels. The counter was of marble
four slabs laid lengthwise, and so close
ly did the slabs fit to one another that
searching eye was required to discOVe
the minute cracks at the points wher
they Joined.
M-fortune, however, followed Rya
like a Nemesis. He was doing a goo
business at the Nasty Corner when he re
ceived orders to move. The insight
buildings were to be torn down and
magnificent office building erected. H
then removed to Pearl and Pike street
opened a saloon on the northwest corne
and fell dead in the place early in til
spring of 1893. three days after he ha
started his new venture Mr.. Ed COCA
was then employed by the Jackson Brew
cry as a collector. The brewery held
mortgage on the saloon fixtures in tt
place and Cogan and a book!leeper nan
ed Adam Ritter were sent down to NAL
an inventory of the effects. The on
thing of any value Cogan was BILE
find was the polished marble counter to
Examining it, and finding that it was
isections, he exerted his strength al