The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-12-14
1t Comes to TOpekanS From
Whisky Houses.
Clubbing Offers of Four Quarts
for $3.50.
AND SOME FOR ONLY S1.9O
He Who Invests Therein Is Not
Wise.
Experiences of Victims O.
Christmas PriceIist Lure.

For the past ten days large num-
Der of people in Topeka have been
hooded with mail from the Kansas City
and st. Louis and st. Joseph whole
sale liquor houses soliciting their pat
ronage for the Christmas holidays.
And the flood will continue for ten
days longer. These letters come from
a dozen different houses, though they
all read mostly the same.
They call attention to the healing
properties and miraculous balm of
about 20 different grades of whisky,
wine and rum, and contain price list
quoting four to 20-year whisky at S1.9O
to $3.50 gallon. These are the burd-
ems that a prohibition state must bear,
until congress bars liquor importation
from prohibitory states.
Any kind of whisky is a pestilence,
but the clubbing offer kind is plague.
Whisky at Sc a gallon will put a man
in Jail or the hospital, but whisky at
$1.sO per gallon will put him in the
tomb.
Some of the men who have patroniz-
ed these wholesale houses tell strange
stories of their experiences with bar
gain-counter goods.
One man who bought a case of
sunshine" gathered from the slopes of
long ago, and paid for it at the rate
vestigation, that the circular section
of the bottom of each bottle had been
cut out, the original bonded liquor re-
moved, and a substitute inserted there /
in Then the cut glass was replaced
and cemented, in such fashion that an
ordinary inspection would fail to dis |
cover it. This man is sore, but he got :
what he might expect from the price /
that he paid.
Another man with letters from three /
wholesalers in his hands and a pocket +
full of price lists went over to a drug |
gist who had formerly bought more or /
less whisky, and asked him for expert /
testimony with prices on good, bad {
and Indifferent whisky. According to
this druggist good whisky sells at $1.50 .
a quart, or Sc gallon. 1t is only
fair grade of whisky that can be
bought as cheaply as $1.25 and 81. The
$3.50 and $3.50 per gallon goods adver-
tised in all the metaphor and flowing
phrases of the fancy press agent are
a deIusfon and a snare according to
this druggist, who declared to his
friend that it was cheap, new whisky,
and, therefore, expensive at any price
It has been estimated that l., 900 let
tiers have been sent to Topeka people
during the month Of December by
wholesale liquor houses from outside
the state. In every letter there is
special clubbing offer of one dozen
brands or WHISKY wine anu COIOlal |
two something per gallon.
He who is deceived thereby is not
wise. The temperance lecturer and the
and the doctor have all
Joined to warn people generally not to
drink liquors at all if they have any
for their health Or their wits
And they are right, but if, in spite
of their warning, people will buy and
drink whisky they had better stop
and think a minute and consult their
own common sense which would tell
them they could not buy good whisky
Or old whisky at such ridiculously low |
prices as it is offered for in the cata-
og clubbing offer coming in by mail
every day.
a Topeka man who received Htera-
.ure from seven different wholesale ;
houses in seven days thought he was
lucky. He looked up calendar and
'ound like Captain Brazenhead, he
vas born on the seventh day of the
seventh month. Then he began TO
igure on his price list. He found that
our quarts of whisky old enough to
-ote. four quarts of Old Corn whisky, . .
gallon or two of a fam Gus Kentucky :
7rand. and another gallon from the !
valley, and another from !.
he Ozark regions of Missouri; also
quart of brandy, a quart of peach ]
brandy, two or three kinds of Cali s
ornia wines, gin froIl England, gin
rom Holland and "Hollands' from :
spain-alsO a few quarts of Jamaica {
UNI. The totals astonished him. He
vent to his druggist friend and found
hat the wholesale price on the average
air article of all this stuff would be :
bout $50, and that a good grade of
he same stuff would be $45. He .,
tarted to figure for the third time, !
nd the third time was a charm. For
lie figured that the goods he was Of =
cred must be made from a cheap I
'rade Of vinegar, spiked with alcohol, ! I
md he thought, but he wasn't sure, s
hat some of it might be spiked with I
we, it being cheaper than alcohol. I
Ind he did not make the order.
A second man figured like a Solo