Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1918-10-25
BOOTLEG" SPECIALS
ON THE W, B. & A.
Liquor Traffic Between Baltimore
And Washington Grows To
Enormous Proportions
FIFTY BARRELS DAILY

Commuters between Washington
and Annapolis have for some time re-
marked the innumerable suit cases
bags, satchels, etc., that have been
carried aboard the cars of the w. B..
& A Electric line, apparently empty
on the trip to Baltimore, and heavily
laden on the return trip.
Passengers on nearly every car,
from the Naval Academy Junction to
Washington. have been obliged to
stand in aisles wedged in by heavily
laden suit cases and packages of all
sorts, that it was easy to guess con-
tanned wet goods" being carried into
Washington This mornings Wash
ington Times says:
Liquor traffice between Baltimore
and Washington has swelled to such
proportions that the Washington, Bal
timore, and Annapolis railway has
found it necessary to put five extra
trains in daily operation.
These extra trains are exclusively
for the use of persons bringing liquor
from Baltimore to Washington, and
after being in operation eight days
have gained the name of 'bootleggers'
specials 1t is estimated that not
less than fifty barrels of whisky are
brought into Washington daily on
these special trains.
The railway also has found it neces-
sary to designate points in Baltimore
and Washington for the disembarka-
tion of the bootleggers, and these
points are known as 'bootleggers' ter
minals.'
Special Liquor Stop
For passengers without liquor the
terminal in Baltimore is near the mid
die of the city. but the bootleggers
and other liquor carriers leave the
trains five blocks away, at Eutaw and
Pratt streets. In Washington the nom
liquor passengers are allowed to
leave the trains at any point between
the city limits and the regular ter
minal at Fourteenth street and New
York avenue northwest, but the liquor
carriers have been given their own
disembarking point at Fifteenth and
II streets northeast.
"'The new plan is to be continued,
said j. j. Doyle, general manager of
the railway company, to a Times re-
porter today in commenting on the
eight-days' trial given the Bootleg
gers Specials
Forced To Adopt Plan
"'We were forced to adopt this new
system of transporting the liquor car
riers when it became apparent that the
practice of allowing these carriers to
ride in the regular trains was becom-
ing unbearable to the regular patrons
of our line who do not carry liquor.
The new plan has been effective in
separating the liquor carriers from
the other passengers, and thus has
served the purpose for which 1T was
! inaugurated.'
Some of the special trains consist
of five cars, with sixth added on
Saturdays and Sundays and to handle
holiday crowds. The average number
of cars per train is between three and
four, and according to officials of the
line. between 500 and 900 people are
carried into Washington each day on
these trains, fully 95 per cent of them
carrying liquor.
"An official of the company who has
been watching this liquor traffic
stated that for his own information
he had been making an estimate OF
the amount of the liquor carried into
Washington each day. He said:
Fifty Barrels Daily
81 allow, aon a moderate estimate
two gallons of liquor to each large
suitcase and, not counting separate
parcels of one or two bottles, / an
absolutely certain that at least fifty
barrels of liquor are carried to Wash
ington each day. am reasonably
satisfied in my own mind that the
amount is greater and / think that i
is safe to say that as much as 75 tt
100 barrels comes over on the 'boozt
trains some days
"These special trains leave Balti,
more at 10, II. 2:04, and o'clock
No person with liquor in his posses
sion is permitted to take trains fol
Washington at the mid-city termina
in Baltimore, but is required to take
one leaving the Eutaw and Pratt
street station.
I'm spite of the fact that liquor i:
drunk openly on the 'Bootleggers
Specials, members of the train crews
state that they have had no trouble
in controlling their passengers.
"'Of course, there is shouting ant
loud talking, laughing, and some
times, when some one gets lit up w
have a good deal of swearing, bu
outside of this we have no trouble,
said the conductor of one of the spe