The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-07-16
Police Have All Pharmacies
Under Close Scrutiny.
viOIatOrs of PrOhibitory Law
Will Be Prosecuted.
RAID HAS IT'S EFFECT.
After One Store Was Pulled
Others We're Cautious.
Jointists Seemingly Not Alarm
ed by Visits of Officers.

Chief Golf announced to-day that he
had been instructed to move against
drug stores caught selling liquor with
out permits as common nuisance, and
that the arrest of the men in charge
of the Opera House drugstore next to
the Crawford opera house was just a
sample of what is to follow. Chas.
Hines, proprietor of the Opera drug
store, was arrested on warrant this
morning
I'VE will also go after drugstores with
permits, which are caught selling il
legally said Chief Golf Il dislike to
pile up so many arrests before the next
term of the district court, but l see
no other way, as complaints are being
made to the mayor all the time. III
the Hines case found out that he was
selling liquor and then ascertained in
the probate court that he had no per-
nit The arrest last night was the re-
suit of the investigation, and others
may follow
1t is certainty that the pulling of
the Opera drug store had a wholesome
effect for last night person interested
in the affair made the rounds of the
drug stores later in the evening. The
lights were all out in the rear rooms,
no drinking was allowed in the stores,
and only a bosom friend" could get
bottle of beer to take outside without
leaving his signature The scared con-
dition did not extend to the regular
joints, however, although three of them
had been raided during the evening. The
bartenders continued to play before
crowded houses.
The joints visited by the police Wednes-
day night We're Lonersan's, at rs East
Sixth; The Magnet. and Uterman's place
over the Opera drug store. All of them re-
sumed business after the arrests. when
the beer wagon backed up and nnloaded
a fresh supply before the patrol wagon
with the goods on hand was hardly out
of sight.
It an extremely hard proposition the
police have to deal with just now. The
jointists seemingly do not intend to quit
and the only. thing left is to raid them
every day, piling up evidence which usual
ly gets badly mixed before the cases
reach the district court. A policeman who
is called upon to assist in dozen or more
joint raids every week for two months is
liable to forget some detail on which the
case hinges.
dence of considerable suspicion of the
business of the liquor selling drug stores
was adopted ordering the imposition of
a license tax of SIS per month upon all
drug stores holding permit to sell in
toxicants. City Attorney Spencer has since
been at work on the, preparation of an
ordinance covering the matter. Upon in
vestigation Mr. Spencer has found that
the IS fee is considerably higher than that
customarily assessed against drug stores
in Kansas towns where anything of the
kind is in effect. The Kansas supreme
court affirmed the validity of an ordinance
of the town of Sedan which assessed its
liquor selling drug stores $50 per year.
There is a question among the council
men about the $500 license proposed for
Topeka being so high as to be regarded
as prohibitiVe. This ordinance will be
taken up and seriously discussed Friday
night in the council meeting and some
conclusion reached as to the proper
amount of the drug store tax.