Crime -- Illinois -- Chicago; Police corruption -- Illinois -- Chicago; Political corruption -- Illinois -- Chicago
The location of "blind pigs," or those places in which liquor is sold
without a license, both within prohibition districts as well as without
them, must either be known to officers traveling beats whereon they
flourish, or such officers are too ignorant to belong to the ranks. It is
not ignorance of the officers that prevents their suppression. Superiors
are paid a price for non-interference. The patrolman follows his orders,
permits the illicit traffic to be carried on by those who pay that price,
and reports only those who do not pay it, but who seek to conduct the
prohibited business without contribution to the permissive fund.
In the most respectable settlements of the city, in the very heart of
prohibition districts, in which there would be spasms of protest and
whirlwinds of indignation if it were even suggested that the lines
separating the prohibitive from the non-prohibitive districts should be
abolished, are to be found the highest grade of the breed of "blind pigs."
They are the brilliantly lighted, well arranged, and aristocratic types of
the modern drugstore, where, as the evening shades descend, a band of
friendly Indians assembles to discuss the events of the day, conduct wars,
shape the destinies of nations, and draw their inspiration from spiritus
fermenti op., a drug commonly known, however, as whisky, when obtained
without a prescription at the bar of the ordinary licensed saloon. These
whisky jacks express amazement at the want of proper regulation of the
sale of liquor, while aiding in its unlawful traffic. They are typical
Archimagos; high priests of hypocrisy and deceit. They are the open
mouthed reformers who shout for a rigorous application of the law for the
regulation of saloons outside of their own prohibition districts, for the
maintenance of prohibition within those districts, and who wink at their
own infractions of the license laws, behind the prescription case--their
private bar.
This form of attack upon the license law exists all over the city, more so
perhaps in prohibition districts than without them, but each drug store,
as a rule, has its patrons from whom a yearly revenue is derived by the
accommodating and equally guilty proprietor who vends his drinks without
compliance with the law.
The other class of "blind pigs" owes its existence to a prearranged
bargain between a policeman and the members of that class, who, for the
entertainment of friends, and the turning of a penny, embark in the
business without fear of arrest. As the sale of liquor for use upon the
premises as a beverage is lawful when licensed, every combination to evade
a license is not only an evasion of the penalties of the license law, but
it is a conspiracy to rob the city of a portion of a large revenue,
sufficient almost to support the police force. The city is thus plundered
by its own servants who take its place in fixing the amount of the
license, and who appropriate it when collected to their own use.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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