Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-09-04
Cabaret District Left
Drinkless by Revenue
Officers Activities.
'Tis Getting Dry Along
"B'way," but Not Bone
Dry-No, No, No, No.
BY RILEY MATTHEWS


New York, Sept. 3.-Gotham is
gasping. Can it be that the old town
where they said it never could hap
pen-and maybe it never can--is at
least trembling on the verge of prohi-
bition? There is, in any event, a
touch of Sahara in the air.
Volstead enforcement has resolved
itself into a horse race. Can the run
ners bring it in faster than the federal
officers can seize it? So far, the run
ners seem to have the best of it, but
the "revenuers" are gaining, slowly
but surely.
The blue atmosphere along the once
gay white way on this solemn week
end is due to the fact that in the gid
ed cafes of the city alone more than
81 100000 worth of liquor has been
seized and confiscated since the
cleanup" campaign began a short
time ago. The question is, how long
can the illicit booze dispensers stand
wallops like that?
Cafe Tables Vacant
The sad-faced Bonifaces of Broad
way are "OlllCuJ as NAAPbJ
tables nightly stare them in the face
and as the Volstead wrecking crews
call firmly to announce that they have
only just begun to fight. What they
have been trying TO do lately is 10
rout the hip pocket" brigade. They
have compelled the various fashionable
cafes to shut down on the plan of fur
nishing service" while the patrons,
men and women alike, brought along
their own ''makings."
Led by Director Ralph A. Day of
the New York prohibition enforcement
forces and Division Chief John ID.
Appleby. the 200 enforcement agents
have been on the job day and night,
and widely known eating and erstwhile
drinking places along the gay light
it used to be white way"-havP
been compelled TO see that the intent
as well as the letter of the dry law
was observed.
Jacks. Picadilly. Rendezvous, Billy's,
The CIaridge, Reizenwebber's, Para
disc Roof. Golden Glades-all famous
for their brands in the days gone by,
and where the hard boiled walters
were sure it never could be done
today are as dry as the proverbial
Kansas wheat field. They protested
they slipped from time to time, but
when Appleby quietly told the pro-
prietors that they would be held indi-
viduallv responsible, they made IT i'm
possible for any one not a cOntortlon-
ist TO take a drink even from his own
hip pocket.
the law in New York chiefly as an
eYample for the nation at large. Clos
ing up the big places in the big cities,
he insisted. must be followed by the
closing I'D of the smaller places, not
alone here but all through the country.
Violations have been very flagrant
here" he said, so we just got busy
and compelled respect for the law.
The places which advertised that you
always could get it here are the places
that now are dry"
But There Are Gases
What Mr.. Appleby said is true. 1t is
q fact that the district between about
Thirtieth street on up to beyond
Columbus circle along Broadway, and
in spots for two blocks on either side
of Broadway. is dry. It's hard to be
lieve. New rkers haven fully real
lied it vet and they don't believe it.
The cabaret belt is a changed place.
And the cabarets and restaurants and
roof gardens and dance halls show it.
There isn't one-half the patronage that
there was a week ago. Walters stand
stolidIy, or creep uneasily about the
empty tables. And what a wonderful
reception patrons get now when they
cross portals that heretofore have been
guided by ubiquitous flunkies who in
0lden times permitted the patron to
pay a cover charge and take his seat.
Nothing however, that has been said
bv Messrs. Day and Appleby must be
taken to mean that all of New York
is dry. 1t is not. Perhaps 10 per cent
of the corner saloons are still running
and you don't need an introduction
either to get a pretty fair grade of
Scotch or rye or Bourbon or a large
foaming becker of beer. Furthermore
it can be stated on other than hearsay
that sometimes it is necessary to crowd
a policeman along the mahogany a
little way in order for a thirsty Gus
toner to put in his order
On the same kind of testimony it can
be said authentically there are at leasl
three saloons not hundred miles from
Broadway and Thirty Third street
where the old time custom of chasing
the growler in large tin bucket is
followed.
All this does not bother Day and
AppIeby however. Both say they ex-
pected just such things to happen.
They will continue on with their direct
offensive against the real army. Then
they intend 10 do all the guerilla war
fare on their own lines.
SUGAR PRODUCTION SLUMPS