"DRY” SAN FRANCISCO

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 180, 26 April 1921, Page 6

"DRY” SAN FRANCISCO

EASY TO OBTAIN LIQUOR

HOTEL-KEEPER’S TESTIMONY

Prohibition in San Francisco, according to the owner of nine hotels in the city area, has not hurt hotels; but, rather, has helped them along. Thia assertion was made to n Dominion reporter yesterday by Mr. J. M. Rasmussen, ( of San Francisco, who is at present visiting Now Zealand. He recently returned to San Francisco after a trip to Aus- 1 tralia, but found he could not rest there until he had seen th© Dominion. "Wo wero scared of prohibition at first,” said Mr. Rasmussen, “because we realised that the hundreds of 'blind-pig joints’ that would be erected would be . harmful to the public. This is evi- ’ deneed by the poisoning of many persons recently by drinking raw spirits and impure whisky. But, strangely enough, owners of hotels have greatly benefited. Before the days of ‘dry’ we could only get, at the most, about four dollars a week for rooms in the average hotel. Now we can get anything up to ten dol-. lars a day, without meals. The only persons wlio have suffered are the saloonkeepers. . . The edicts are taken rather as a joke by the majority of people. In every druggist’s shop will be seen signs, ‘So-and-So’s medicated wine—not less than 25 per cent, alcohol.’ The result is that the druggists are doing a great trade.” Mr. Rasmussen stated also that many of the fashionable "sly-grog” houses are winked at by the authorities. 'ln one place/* lie 6ai<i, **one liad only to go to dinner, and teapots or samovars filled with practically any drink except, whisky were placed before one. Whisky, of course, is practically unprocurable, costing anything up to thirty dollars a bottle from sly-groggers. But the authorities are very lax. The new .miv 6 have made it easy for them to be bribed ; and in one case I know of a man who took a case of whisky from Wellington to San Francisco. On his arrival he presented two of the examining officials with a hottie each, and in addition to them letting him in with the remainder the obliging officers arranged that the case should lie taken to a safe place near the wharf until the owner could arrange to have it taken away. Liquor other than whisky is cheaper in San Francisco than it is here, for one can obtain quantities of claret, hock, and port at very low prices/’