Washington ha^ a "Dry Law" and it is a fit theme for comic opera. 
You may not manufacture liquor nor bring it into the state, but 
every 21 days you may go to the County Auditor and for two bits 
( cents) obtain a permit to have shipped to you 2 qts. of whisky 
or 24 pints of beer. Just think what a time they must have had 
experimenting to find out just ho?; much booze ~’&s required to keep 
a man properly stewed for 2i days. This comes for the most part 
from California. In the meantime about every tenth man is carrying 
on a thriving bootlegging business. Tne police have been very active 
and raid soft drink palaces, hotels and drugstores daily. All liquor 
captured is stored u nder police care till the trials come off, and 
the stores etc., wrecked utterly, and thousands of dollars ?;orth 
of property destroyed. One man attempted to recoup his losses by 
charging admission to his place to see what the Dry Squad had done, 
but after a day he ,,t &s arrested on the charge of running a show 
without a license. After the trials began to come off it was dis¬ 
covered that much of the whisky captured had been replaced ^ith 
water, and the police w ere selling the captured liquor in direct 
competition with the legitimate bootleggers. One enterprising cop 
even ran a saloon in the Courthouse, selling captured beer. Such 
is holiness by legislation. Out here we dont feel it, but the best 
business men tell me that prohibition, even as we have it, is a 
good thing, and they doubt if the saloon will ever come back to 
this state again. But it is funny. 
And the ^ar goes on. The English feel that they have so 
secure a hold on the situation that they are able to take contracts 
for shells to be delivered in the U. S• in direct competition with 
our own manufacturers. Mr. Scha^b must surely agree with Gen. 
Sherman. I dont think I have spelt him right, but I meah the man 
who runs the shop in Bethlehem. What a time the English have had 
with new ministries, and what a lot of blunders they seem to have 
