The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1922-08-23
other townsman at home. z He is wise;
ha 10 .carafnl. he Ia pnnd WV E.sE ~.

With an unusually large proportion
Of very rich or very we'll to do inhabi-
tants the metropolis is, inevitably, do
ing what all other towns ire trying
to do about the booze traffic. For
every conviction there are two home
brewers. In the main, the munich
pality does not regard the prohibition
law seriously. 1t goes through all
the motions but the results are inf
nitesral.
With Canada to the north IL hours,
with Cuba or the Bahamas away a
hundred hours, and with England five
days away, and trains and ships ar
| irving every day from those points,
it goes without saying that contra
band booze should form principal
item Of illegitimate business. One
can get it anywhere. But to repeat,
it is not the New Yorker who predom-
mates in demanding such booze, but
the visitor or the alleged New York
| er.
A visiting newspaperman from Ohio
wrote a story some time ago in which
he alleged that Fifth Avenue was the
principal consumer Of high priced
liquor. By Fifth Avenue he meant,
naturally, the residents of the million
dollar mansions that line that famous
thorough-fare north of Fifty-seventh
street. But those homes in truth do
not figure in the defeat of the Vol
stead law. In the most cases, to be-
gin with, they are monuments to the
success of past generations Of hard
working Americans, and in most cas-
es, too, they are literally mausoleums,
since they are boarded up The only
vestige of life is the caretaker's dog.
The owners, q uietlilkely, are aging
or aged survivors Of the New York
of generation ago, and one cannot
blame them if they cannot bring them
selves to live in the city that, out
wardly, bears little resemblance to the
town of the late nineties.
Those homes, therefore, have be-
come hiuses: They disappear one by
one. They have no relation to the
involved in bootlegging transactions.
In every probability every suclO home
has cellar-the kind of cellar that
cultured families knew how to main
tain-retaining their liquid stocks as
they were left in years gone by.
| Where these families of yesteryear
are represented by the so-called gene
ration the picture is different. New
York is no longer the social center
that it was once, since most of the So
cial duties are discharged in hotels
and restaurants, and if they are in
habited at all, they are "estate"
homes that have little in COMMON
with the predictions of their present
owners.
| The wealthy booze-buying element
of New York does not iinger in the
city. 1t retains residence here,
whether it be small apartment or a
50-room house, but the real habitat
is somewhere out in the country, US
ually up the Hudson somewhere. But
as gregariousncss in the country is
prevented by the distance between
homes, club life settles all problems
and eliminates all difficulties. Thus
the cubs of this kind are those that
may provide responsible bootlcggers
a stupendous profit in return for SER
vices, but the most liberal estimate
would hardly justify the assertion
that New York's rich people are the
chief consumers.
Among the Nccdlew0rkers
In fact, more booze is being dealt
with in the so-called neighborhoods
where a certain type of sleek needle
trade manufacturers abide than is
purveyed elsewhere. The men who
are identified with banking in Wall
Street, in the same measure, are much
more dry than are the stockholders
1t is a problem in relativity, not in
comparisons.
In May, Scotch whiskey, which
somehow seems to be the whiskey
most in demand, was quoted in New
York City at much lower priles than
in Washington and in Albany. Sup
ply exceeded the demand. A number
of reasons contributed to this slug
gishness, the chief of which was that
quality had dwindlcd, and any price
was too high for colored water. Thus
the New Yorker of means, beisg on
| the defensive, refused to buy boozo
that was sol dat local-color prices.
And when the gratuitous critic from
out of town says Of the New Workers.
that they are the most credulous and
gullible people on earth he has in
New Yorker but is not one. The New
is about as foolish as the Chicagoan
and the San Franciscan and that said
all is said.
Sherry at $40 q galoln in tins, II
per cent clarct at SIS gallon, import
ed Italian vcrmouth at So bottle
(not the dcalcoholized kind) and a
good cognac at 50 "ffth" those
arc some Of the items that the expc-
ricnced purchaser will pay for gcnu-
inc products. But it goes without
saying that 300 to 400 per cent in
crease involved in those prices since
1918 is something that causes any
sane man to pause. The stuff at
those prices is not worth it. 1t is not
worth it even as medicine
Oiling Wheels of Commerce