Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-12-29
BROADWAY NOT
SoDRY TO THOSE
Who HAVE PRICE
Cheerful Liquid Can Be Pur-
chased, Although Pro-
hibitionlsts Say
Nay.
BY AUGUSTIN LARDY.
International News Service staff
COrrespondent,

ing to Hoyle,. the police federal
agents and the prohihitionists, this
should be tale OF boozeless Broad
way. the kickless cocktail and the
punches punch. But in all
veracity this is story of New York
where near-beer flows and hard
liuuor trickles.
When the prohibitionists, the
sodarop interests decreed through
congress that the whole world
should go dry and that Americans
should start the fashion, New York
laughed until its throat was parched,
and then-took another drink.
Came June 80, 1919, and the thor
oughly alcoholized and ribald flu
neral of John Barleycorn. With the
dawning of July I, New York found
its favorite saloons were closing up,
and that in those establishments
apprehensively remaining open it
required more than mere nodding ac-
quaintance with the bartender to be
served with sherry"
Grimly Keep Up Fight.
Today New York realizes rubi-
cund, jovial old ]. B. is indeed buried,
and despite his twitchings in the
coffin is not likely to be resurrected.
But the dovotees of that hard-dying
old gentleman are still fighting
against the great drought and until
the last drop of alcohol of any
variety has been consumed, until
every private and public still has
been smashed by the federal author
tiles until every art of distilling
alcohol is lost, there are thousands
in this city who hope to continue
ironically greeting this new dry era
with another-just one more-liba-
ton to the dead, wet past.
Those who wan liquor badly
enough can get it, for the trail to the
lair of the Blind Tiger can be fol-
lowed by anyone untroubled with
defective vision. The three soft
raps at the back door, the suspicious
eye at the peep-hole, the whispered
password, the rattle, of unlocking
bolts and bars, the chink of silver or
the rustic of paper money and
Here S to Pussyfoot.
Here's confusion to Pussyfoot
Johnson
That's, the usual form of proceed
ure, but there are bars wide open
where the tried and true still find
resting their soles upon the famil-
lar brass rail, where the bartender
is still sympathetic regarding the
domestic squabble, the harshness of
the boss in the Office, or that sudden
slump in the stocks. Whisky,
usually of the triple charged. shock
the-soul-of-you sort, is served from
a ginger ale bottle. Two fingers of
the rusty-red liquid is measured
into your glass and the only adj
monition is: Drink it quick!'
The cost? That depends on the
bar and the regularity of your GUS
tom. The average shot of red-eye
fetches 40 cents mouthful. There
are places where the barkeeper, TAX
ing chance on the stranger charges
Is cents drink. 1t is still possible
to buy good whisky for about $l2
a quart bottle, but gin is not to be
obtained The, stuff they sell under
that fond old name smells like tur-
pentine, tastes like tobasco and
tackles you like an internal ty-
phoon.
/, Bottle on Hip.
The latest trick of barkeepers is
to surreptitiously pour the dose
from the bottle carried on. the hip.
This is so that in case of sudden
raid no whisky will be found behind
the bar.
Beer and ale, of course, have long
since gone the way all good liquor
should go, and champagne and the
higher priced wines have been either
exported or lie be-cobwebbed in the
cellars of the far sighted and
wealthy. There are roadhouses on
the outskirts of New York, it is said.
where patrons can get whisky
xpunches at ST and $3.50 blow, but
one of the strangest effects of pro-
hibition has been to bring back the
free lunch counter in many saloons,
especially in the foreign quarters OF
the city. These places, ostenta-
tiously advertising near-beer brews,
charge 10 cents glass and grant
the purchaser the privilege of nib
bling at cheese and crackers or pick
ING AZ sailed fish and pickles.