In the early 20s a man whom Clare knew came to me with a
big money making proposition. He had a near beer tavern on 1st Ave South
near Jackson Street. He painted a glowing account of the profits and
offered to sell out for a few hundred dollars. I knew that Clare was
doing alright so I went into it.
I had an automobile paint shop which I will
describe later.
I planned to work in the shop by day
and work the bar at night. During the day I hired a bartender. My friend
arranged for me to buy a concoction made up of old fruit and what not.
It contained enough alcohol to give the bums a kick. What the good man
did not tell me until later was that I must dig up $100 per month to pay
off the police. He did all
the business with them as they would not trust me. My protests had no
effect. He explained that so long as the money was paid the police would
never enter the place. This was true, though I would see them walk by
and look in at times.
It was a lot of fun every night. I met a lot of
characters from the slums and underground, and was a friend with them
all. I learned to shake dice and broke even usually. There were
some regular winos among them. They could always get anything if they
could get some money. One of my customers came in one evening and as
time went on he got progressively drunker. I knew he had a source
somewhere and finally discovered his bottle in the toilet water tank.
After enjoying the novelty of this business I began to realize that I
was not earning a dime for myself. It all went out in rent, police
graft, or wages for my day shift and my stock in trade. I told this to
my police go-between and said I could not pay the police graft any
longer. He explained to me that they would start by coming into my
tavern and threatening and bullying my customers. If that did not work
they would take samples of my brew, but it would be put into an old
moonshine bottle so the evidence against me would be conclusive. I would
then be subject to arrest and fine.
What he told me did happen in the first stage. As he said, the police
came in and gave the first lesson. I then asked him if he could sell my
business. He did so getting another sucker and no doubt profiting
himself. My buyer was also swindled and not long after, he was gone and
the joint closed.