Great Falls daily tribune., 1920-03-02
HASKIN LETTER
WET BUT NOT WILD
By FREDERIC J. HASKIN

or three fingers, its decks aWash with
stuff which is worth more than ITS
weight in gold just ninety miles north.
Newcomers from the United States have
been known to break down and weep at
the spectacle of this waste OF precious
substance 1t has been estimated that
| if every Cuban barkeeper could be sent
| to the interior of North America for
six months, he would acquire an attitude
toward ethyl alcohol which would
| ultimately save millions to his employer.
In the principal hotels here you can
/ get almost any kind Of drink known
| to civilized man for relatively nlgn
| price, resembling those paid In New
York and other big cities while war time
prohibition was in force, but before the
! am endment became effective. BY going
| around the corner to natyle bar, you
can obtain exactly the same drinks for
about half as much This puts the
| visiting bibler on the horns of a dilemma.
| The barkeepers in the big hotels are the
only ones who speak English. After he
| has been here about four days, what the
| American tourist Graves above all
! things is to find someone who can cater
to lis wants in his own language, while
| if he wants some drink not generally
made in these parts the English-speak-
ing barkeeper is about his only hope. At
the same time. the WeilknoWn Yankee
instinct for bargain is on the job. SO
that he cannot refrain from trying sign
language and gestures in the low rate
emporiums. 1t is really quite q show to
watch a man from Detroit who does not
know any more Spanish than a monkey,
trying to order a horses neck from
non English speaking Cuban barkeeper.
He I.oints at bottles utters names, goes
through motions. The native listens
gravely. He is not a mind reader, but he
has imagination and is born gambler.
He mixes up seven or eight kinds OF
! liquor, shakes tie mixture with ice. adds
an Give and piece of orange peel, and
politely offers it TO the customer The
customer takes one sip. makes ter
ribie face, and begins all over again.
This time he shouts the names of the
ingredients in a loud voice. as though
hopeful that mere noise might serve to
make an idea penetrate foreign under
standing. The barkeeper, all unf!urrled,
nonchalantly empties his first effort into
the slops. and prepares to start all over.
BY this time small crowd Of natives
has coleeted-not an amused laughing
crowd. such as an American bar would
draw under similar circum stances, but
a grave. polite crowd. anxious only that
the stranger shall have what he wants.
Several interpreters volunteer, each of
them equipped with about six words Of
| English and the very best Of intentions.
! Inc American DS ti4is time iS itl III the
face. and cursng the entire island of
Cuba, but still determined. He finally
gets what he wants, after running about
Il pint of assorted liquors and his own
temper. but without having distributed
the polite equanimity of the natives in
/ the least.
An interesting phase Of the abundance
Of alcohol on this and other islands near
tour own virtuous shores is the small but
steady stream of it which flows toward
the mainland. While every passenger
4 who lands at Key West is rounded IN
/ in sort Of barn and locked in until his
I baggage and sometimes even his pockets
/ have been searched for liquor, nearly
every freight vessel that makes port is
| able safely to bring a good mans, quarts
ashore. This is no discredit ID our
cstimable internal revenue service. for
the Illicit traffic by water is almost
/ impossible to stop.
"Rut / thought that they searched
| every vessel as soon as she made port.
and put all alcoholic liquor under lock