The New York herald., 1922-02-20

There is one recti1er here, acting for
large and wealthy syndicate. who
stacked thousands of barrels in the
middle of plaza in Requa. across the
harbor. He, like the rest, merely
raised a stockade and hired special
policemen to watch the stuff.
At first they began to smuggle the
pure liquor back into the States. You
see, at first the business of boot
Logging was a more or less serious
matter down here. The Cuban Govern
ment was in pretty fair shape and
had not gone sliding into the slough
of despond wherein it wallows now
The only persons indulging in boot
logging were those backed by rather
extensive American capital. OF course
the names of these capitalists are
whispered around rather freely and
they are somewhat amazing.
However, that is beside the point
These bootleggers with fair sized poats
began running the stuff to Key West,
Tampa, st. Petersburg, Homosassa,
Apalachicola, Pensacola, Mobile and
even as far. as New Orleans. The
United States Government was slow
at getting on the job. Thousands OF
dollars worth of perfectly good booze
got back into the States before Wash
ington could make any effort at stop
ping il.
Increase In Demand.
these owners of American whisky that
harder times were in the offing. The
demand for Scotch was increasing IN
the States. The business of running
booze up the Gulf began to be some
thing Of an exploit and every trip
showed that danger was increasing.
| Furthermore the price of whisky from
England and the cost of the liquors
manufactured here were mounting.
The supply appeared to be dwindling.
OF the original 10000 barrels of stuff
fetched here by the group we have
chosen for our subject matter here had
dwindled to 10000. The end was in
sight.
And then the shady work set in. To-
day, two years after the appearance
of those $4,000 barrels. there are still
about $4,000 barrels of it. They sell
II and sell it, but the numbt- of barrels
seems not to decrease.
The answer Is too simple.
If you should take one barrel of
regular whisky-stuff made back in
the States before prohibition-and add
thereto one barrel of cane alcohol and
then add five barrels of distilled water,
how many barrels of whisky have you?
/ Why seven, of course.
And If you take one barrel of Scotch
and add thereto five barrels OF dis
titled water and one barrel OF cane
alcohol, what have you? That's not
difficult. You have seven barrels of
something or other that tastes some
thing like spoiled Scotch. But IL you
stir into that fearsome concoction a
relatively small portion OF creosote
what then?
Plenty of RcctifyinG.
| Taste It, Very strong Scotch. Would
Britisher drink It? Not for the price
| of the British Navy. But Americans
would and did and do. And they howl
for more. Moreover, they are paying
from $50 20 s110 case for 1t in the
States. The price depends upon the
distance it has to be transported as
much as anything else. Quality has
been a mere subterfuge long since.
This correspondent does not know
in how many places in Cuba this recti-
flying is being done to-day. II he
should say that there are a hundred
big establishments of this sort to-day
he might easily be shown in error to-
morrow.
John Jones, for example. has made
enough money shaking booze into
Florida Co enable him to order large
consignment OF Scotch from England
or Nassau or Kingston. His ship ar
rivos and he has his barrels and cases
lcrricd TO his headquarters. There he
rectiies his liquor. lie does 1t him
self, hiring Chinese or Cuban labor MS
he may require It. Time was when
rectifying was something of an art.
Not to-day. All you need is n large
| mcas sure and lots of room
l nf ,,,.ero ~n...n ~twat~bt f..r-~ |.