Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-03-08
IN HOTEL CORRIDORS.

Il passed through Kansas recently en-
route from Melbourne to London, and stop
ped off at the ranch of friend in the west
ern part of the state" said Alfred Dilling-
ham, at the Arlington.
THE county seat was a town of about
1000 inhabitants, but it contained, neverthe-
less, four drug stores To initiate me, a
blooming Englishman,' as my friend face
ttously called me, he took me to two of the
drug stores and in each we had drink
Of whisky as We stood behind the high PIE
scription counter, which shut out the view
of the passersby on the street. The price
was ten cents a drink. The liquor was
viler than any L had ever tasted in the bush
districts of Australia. If Kansas possesses
its full quota of cranks, as my friend de-
clared, such whisky as Is dispensed in Its
drug stores ought to turn the drinking pop
ulation into lot of MANAGES.
"Of course, four drug stores IN a little
western town of 1000 people is laushab e.,
for 1t would not more than support one. My
friend explained to me that they were drug
stores only in name, and that beyond carry
ing a small stock of patent medicines, pro-
prIetary articles and drugs the ostens.bie
business was but mask to conceal the real
source of proft-liquor selling.
'.One of the ineXplicabe constituents OF
American life to the average educated Eng
lishman is the persistency and failure to
take cogniZance of things as they really OK
ist, which in turn you charge against Us.
In England laws are enacted TO be enforced.
The public houses in London close on the
minute at midnight, and no proprietor would
sell a dram after the last stroke of the
clock. On Sunday a drink is absolutely un-
obtainable except during the hours the law
allows the pubs to keep open. In America
Sunday Is the most profitable day for the
public houses or saloons, though the law
says they shall remain closed. 4 understand
that Washington is about the only exception
of the great cities and that a drink over
the bar cannot be obtained in the city.
The defiance of the law in prohibition
state, such as Kansas, would not be permit
ted an instant in England neither would
the breaking Of the public peace and the
smashing of private property by those who
take the enforcement of the law into their
own hands. These two lamentable condi-
lions, it seems to me, are blot upon the
state where practiced and amount almost
to national disgrace. 1t would appear to
me that one of the weaknesses Of the re-
public is that laws are passed not to be
observed and enforced, while in England
they are obeyed.
.'rhe words saloons whisky beer and
bar sound homogeneous to the ear OF a
foreigner as applied to prohibition, and their
existence Is a mystery to him as thus used,
because he understands prohibition to mean
the absolute forbidding of the sale of spirit
uous liquors. In America, apparently, IL
means where liquors are sold surrepti-
tiously.
However, I do not mean to criticise. but
having just come from Kansas the subject
is in my mind 1t is twelve years since
visited Washington, and am astonished at
the great change observable here. To my
mind II ranks next to Paris as a show city.
1t is a beautiful city and the pride OF It's
citizens is commendable."
In every hotel In the country in the rules
which are tackled up on the door of each
room occurs this line:
NO dogs allowed in the hotel.''
TT Ia commonly supposed said the clerk,