The Sentinel=record., 1911-03-07
As1AHR AND HERMAN.
Answer C. c. LemIy's Communication
 Regarding the Saloon Business.


 Editor Sentinel Record:
 MT. I.emly has, in a communication reproduced in your paper of the sec ond instant male some extravagant statements regarding the saloon busi- ness in Hot Springs, We, as saloon men of this city believe it would be an injnsl.ce to ts and others engaged in that business, 10 allow such state meDts Co go uachallenged.
 If MT Lemly is sincere in his as seriCDs and We have no reason to say that he is not, he is sadly misin- folmed. not only as to the volume Of business done by the saloon men of this city. but also as to the expense necessary to conduct the same. It is not our purpose to engage in con troyersy with Mir. I-emlg, nor to criti- else his communication beyond it's reference to the saloon business. We know tfis vocation from A to z, and are familiar with all of it's angles, and
 
 Springs who can stand one dollar more expense than he now has to pay, we don't know who he is or where he can be found.
 Mir Lemly attempts to irstify his suggestion as to increasing the H. cense to $3,e00 year by the intima ton that if would curtail the numser oi saloons to 20: or in other words would force out of business about 35 saloons leaving 20, which could stand $500 a month to the city on an alleged income of s100 day. Upon our knowledge of the business in Hot Spring We take issue with him on this statement and most positively as- sert that 20 saloons would not aver. age sl00 a day the year around, nor could they afford to pay a license 10 the city of g 500 a year unless they were so distributed over the city as to be five or six blocks apart.
 In estimating the gross income to each of the 20 saloons, of $36,500 year. upon a basis of sl00 day, Mir. Lemiy has evidently overlooked the fact that there are 52 Sundays and five or six elections each and every year when the saloons are. closed. or supposed to be, and generally fined if they are not; so there are about 5i days of every year, or about one-six@ of the time. that the saloons are closed, losing, on basis of sl90 day, $500. completely wiping out tue net profit of s5,450 according to Mir. Lemly's figures, with s350 to spare for the loss account
 Another evidence of the fact that he is totally unfamiliar with the sa- loon business. is his assertion that one-half of the gross receipts eon-' stitutes the profits We don't know the source of his information on this point, unless t comes frem the drug business. the profits of which. are by ro means criterion by which our profits can be estimated since 1t IS generally conceded fsct that the pre- seriptiOn feature Of the drug business cannot be di4oounted as a money 1 maker.
 Again Mir Lumley tells tae public. vita as much assurance apparently. as # he had been reared in the sa locn business. what it costs to run saloon the receipts of which are sio9 a day. or sss.5o0 a year. 4 saloon with snch an Income could not get along with two bafkeepers very well, land if it did. would not have man whoae services were worth less than sl00 month. which would be 32.400 year for two more. or s4O9 above Mir. LeTniey's estimate He places '