The Duluth rip-saw. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1917-19??, 1917-12-08
WHITE SWAN DRUG STORE
CONDUCTS A BLIND Pig
Finnish Stool Pigeons Buy Pint of swedberg's
Whiskey and Drug Clerk Helenus Gets
Fined Most Heavily.

Weino G.. Helenius, a Finnish
pharmacist, recently was fined
500 and costs for selling whiskey
at the White Swan drug store at
No. 3 East Superior street.
Many Duluth druggists who do
a reputable business, feel that the
ends of justice will not be proper
ly met until Alfred E. Swedberg
loses his license to conduct a drug
store.
How Helenius got caught in the
illegal sale of booze is an interest
ing incident.
A Finnish detective, employed
by the city, entered the White
Swan, presented the card Of John
Anderson, a local clerk in cloth
ing store, and said that he wanted
a pint of whiskey for Mr.. Ander-
son.
"We cannot sell it," replied
Helenius.
"Mr. Anderson wishes it for
medicinal purposes, replied the
Finn. ''He gets all his medicines
here. This is his card. He wants
you to send him a pint Of wills,
key"
The drug clerk handed out the
pint bottle of booze and received
a big, round dollar therefore. His
arrest and conviction promptly
followed.
Incidentally, Mr.. Anderson was
greatly incensed over the free use
of his business card. Meeting the
Finnish detective in the lobby of
the Astoria hotel, he promptly
took that individual by the
throat, shook him like a terrier
does a rat and then marched him
over to the White Swan to inform
druggist Swedberg that Mr.. An
derson did not authorize the use
of his card and the purchase of
that pint of drug store whiskey.
The Rip-saw inspector, after a
careful investigation, finds that
Alfred E. Swedberg, although a
member of the Swedish mission
church at the West End, dearly
loves the almighty dollar and that
he is notorious for getting it by
the sale Of drug store whiskey,
wrongfully and illegally.
At one time, Swedberg owned
the Red Cross drug store at No:
2015 West Superior street. His
place of business was a Sunday
oasis for those who thirsted on
the day the saloons were closed.
Before going up to the mission
church, where he sang in the
choir for a time, Swedberg would
take peep at the rather low re-
ceipts in the cash register.
The first thing he would do on
returning from the divine sanct-
uary would be to take a look at
the dear old cash register. When
he saw a goodly collection Of coin,
received from the Sunday sale of
whiskey, he would rub his hands,
smile joyfully and tells the boys
how well they had done.
Then, when behind the prescrip-
ton case, possibly to. wrap up a
pound of opium for some heather
Chink laundryman, the godly man
would hum, "Praise God from
Whom All Blessings Flow
The Rip-saw has indisputable
evidence that the godly Swenberg
often took in anywhere from SIS
to 500 from his Sunday sales of
red liquor. Every Saturday, in
fact, clerks would be required to
fill up enough bottles to fill two
shelve spaces behind the prescrip-
ton case so that there need not
be unnecessary delay in deliver
ing the goods when the thirsty
wayfarers came in for their sac
ramental snorts on the holy Sab
bath day.
Something like a dozen years
ago, Swedberg sold out his Red
Cross store and bought the old
White Swan drug store. For the
past seven years, he has been
faithfully served by Weino G..
Helenius, a Finnish pharmacist
who came to Duluth from the
Mesaba range. Mr.. Helenius is
represented as being a steady and
liberal patron Of Swedberg' 8
nonular nrescrintion himSalf