The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1904-10-11
WHISKEY EPIDEMIC ARREST.
OWNER OF "BARREL HOUSE"
WHO SOLD ELEPHANT" FLASKS
Another Death Added TO Roll on STRIKERS
Farm"-Deadly Liquor Sold at 10
Cents Pint, Doctor Says-sympterns
or Wood Alcohoi-At Least ~ Victims.

Farm'-Deadly Liquor Sold at 10
Cents Pint, Doctor Says-symptens
or Wood Alcohoi-At Least ~ Victims.
Acting under instructions from Coroner
Scholer,e the police OF the Weet Forty
seventh street station took into custody
last night Rudolph Fritsche. who keeps q
little saloon at 723 Tenth avenue. Fritsche
Is charged only with being a suspicious
person, but the real cause for his arrest
Is the fact that he, is suspected OF having
sold brand Of whiskey containing poison,
and that this whiskey Is responsible for
the many deaths that have occurred In
the neighborhood recently.
Fritsohe's saloon Is OF the variety gen.
orally described by the police as barrel
house" Whiskey Is sold by him in large
quantities and at n low price. The leading
brand which he offered for sale was drawn
from barrels upon the application Of pur
chaser
People in the neighborhood carried their
TASKS 70 the saloon and had them filled.
Fritsche pasted his own label on the bottle.
The labels were pink and on them was tho
picture OF an elephant. Folks in the neigh
borhood came to refer to the TASKS of
Investigation of the numerous deaths
in the neighborhood during the past two
weeks showed that nearly all those who had
died suddenly were customers Of the barrel
house. Coroner Scholer and the West
Forty-seventh street police learned enough
to establish a belief in their minds that
the whiskey sold by Fritsche had been re-
sponsible for these deaths.
Fritsche, after being taken to the station
house, was quickly admitted to bail, which
was accepted by Magistrate Mayo. After
his release the saloonkeeper went to his
place of business, and was followed by
Coroner Scholer, Assistant District At
torney Garvan and Police Captain Hussey.
The saloon was closed, and Fritsche was
questioned by these three officials. The
conference was being continued at q late
hour.
According to the police, Fritsche only
recently bought the saloon. Previously
he had been employed az driver for a
wholesale butcher.
The deadly whiskey epidemic con-
tinues apparently undated. Two men lay
dead yesterday in their rooms In the teie-
ment at COS Tenth avenue, one Of whom,
William McAuliffe, aged IS. died on Satur-
day, and the other, Charles McLeavey,
aged 80, died on Sunday. Only few doors
away. at 500 West Forty-ninth street. the
funeral OF William Drain, aged 30, who
died on Friday, occurred yesterday.
Yesterdays additional death was that OF
Robert Smith OF 72s Tenth avenue, only a
short distance from the fatal corner. 1t
took place IN the early hours Of the morn
ing. His son, John Smith. died at the
same address two weeks ago. Il was also
learned that Nora McGinnees. whose home
was only five doors from that Of Adolphe
Lehman, died on the same day from the
same malady.
All told. twenty-five persons, all OF them
Of middle age, have died within the past two
weeks. The symptoms in all the cases were
in the main identical. They were character
lied by the attendant physicians In all cases
as those OF alcoholism.
When Adolphe Lehman died on Sunday, at
5s9West Forty eighth street Coroner 'sPhysi-
clan Weston made an autopsy which, while
bearing out the physician's diagnosis OF
alcoholism, left other serious questions
to be solved. The stomach OF the dead man
and bottle Of whiskey purchased in
the neighborhood were taken to the
Health Department. and DR.. Darlington
turned them over to the city chemist for
analysis
DR.. Darlington said yesterday that 30
far as the Health Department was con-
cerned no action would be taken until
after the result OF the chemical analyses
now in process was known.
DR.. Conlan OF as7 West Forty-eighth
street, who has attended FIVE persons who
died, said yesterday afternoon that while
the cases he had seen were plainly enough
alcoholism, there was yet something Pc
culiar in such an outbreak Of the ailment
in so oiroumsoribed territory.
Il was called in last night" said DR..
Conan, "to see Charles MoLeavey at COS
Tenth avenue. Michael McAulifYe lay
dead OF the same disease in a room just
across the hall when 1 got there and
McLeavsy was already dead when arrived.
All the deaths know about we're very SINH
lar-all sudden, an instantaneous collapse
apparently. 1t would appear as though
there had been something In the form OF
alcoholic beverage they had been taking
which had a powerful effect in arresting
the hearts action. l have found out that
u tuo Cdbc Vi UtNCtdi WIN diou thoy
been In the habit Of buying whiskey in pint
bottles at the rate OF ten cents pint and
that in some instances they drank great
quantities Of it, pouring It out into ordinary
drinking tumblers full and pouring it down
as though It were water, 1t is barely possible
the whiskey was made OF wood alcohol.
1t may have been mere stretch.
Stretch IA a delectable beverage made
OF alcohol reduced with water which the
shoemakers down at Brockton, Mass,
where formerly lived, used to drink
Coroner Scholer has orered DR.. Gull
foyle, the chief statistician Of the Depart
ment Of Health, to furnish him list Of all
persons who have died during the past
three months In the district lying between
Forty-sixth and Fifty-third streets, Ninth
avenue and the North River. He said
Yesterday that all OF these deaths would be
investigated and that IL It were thought
advisable in any instances, bodies would
be exhumed and more chemical analyses
made.
Michael McAuliffe, who died on Satur-
day, had been barkeeper in one Of the
neiehborhood saloons, and his death, fol-
followed 80 quickly by that OF his friend,
McI,eavey, caused a great deal of talk in
the neighborhood yesterday.