Liquor Business in Manila
“As ONE result of American occupancy of Manila,” says the Wine and Spirit News, “the liquor business has reached enterprising proportions, and is now considered as one of the leading, as well as one of the respectable, kinds of business. Says one correspondent: ‘On the Escolta, the principal street, only a quarter of a mile long, there were but two places where intoxicating liquors were sold when we entered the city, whereas now there are eighteen. There are three hundred licensed places in the city where liquors may be obtained, licenses costing $3 per year. The income of the largest, the Alhambra, is stated on good authority to be $700 per night. Already the street cars are topped with large signs detailing the exquisite qualities of certain whiskies. One quarter of the daily issue of the principal English newspaper published is devoted to extolling the perfection of a brand of beer, while the largest drug store in202town devotes a whole column to advertising its fine line of liquors, with no mention of its medicines.’”