"SPEAKEASY" SURPRISES.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 272, 16 November 1929, Page 9 (Supplement)

"SPEAKEASY" SURPRISES.

A DRINK IN NEW YORK, jj TWO BRONX—9/. § "How about a drink ?" said my Ameri- i can friend as we sped uptown from the '£ docks in New York (writes an English- j man on holiday there). "How do you S get it?" J asked. Here was the Land of » Prohibition, I thought, and the first ques- % tion was, "How about a drink?" = Still, I wanted to know. So many -j learned people had written learned dis- I sertations about the working of the Vol- : stead Act, all saying different things, » that I felt fogged. "Soon as you please," = I said. ; "Right," said my friend. "We'll try a : mild beer first." He stopped the taxi jj at an inconspicuous-looking swing-door, ~ alighted, and simply pushed the door -j open. No locks, no watching policemen, » no "Open Sesame." • "Oh, they don't mind beer," he said. : "There are lots of things they don't mind : here, and the first is beer." : Excellent Beer. : We stood at a bar and drank a cool jjj pint of excellent beer for a shilling each. jjj Then we were in our taxi again. : "Blank's, on Forty-dash Street," my : friend told the driver. After bumping ; about on roads that would have put an jjj African jungle to shame (they were : making a new underground railway, I : was told), we drew up at what looked : like a private house. : "Practically every house on the * streets round here is a "speakeasy.'" j He rang the bell, a curtain was pulled : back, a face peered out at us, and the : door slid open with a click. My friend ; was well known here. : We climbed to the first floor, and here ■ was a sight to make London rub its : eyes. Here was the perfect bar. A deep : blue light slied a moonlight effect. In : one corner was a buoy, which flashed out : a red light intermittently. Above this ■ was a notice: "The S.S. Tryangetit sails jj at noon." ; "Cocktail?" queried my friend. \ "Bronx Manhattan, Martini, Sidecar — : or just a British Scotch and splash?" He : added, "You can drink beer if you like, -j but it is the real stuff, and costs 10/ a jj bottle." We had a couple of Bronx, and \ that cost him just 9/1 s Obliging Police. £ "Don't be afraid of drinking at places : like these," he said. "The stuff comes \ from home, therefore it's pretty good. « Also, the police don't raid these 'joints,' « or if they do tliey telephone an hour beforehand." s : "You see, they think it is better to •• have a number of respectable places open ~ than a lot of mushroom "joints' selling £ synthetic poison. Those are the dens z tliey really are trying to stamp out." • "See that young fello,w? That's a = scion of the 'Four Hundiv.l. —what you Jj call the 'Upper Ten' in England. His » family have a very good private boot- jj: logger. All the best families have." S "Is it like this all over America " I ; asked. "No," he answered. "Most of jjj the West and Middle West is dry as a : bone. Parts of the South, too. No, « Ford Madox Hueffer was right when he : said "JSiew York is not America.'" ;