3/18/1892, Pgh Post-Gazette. Amshel “yoused to conduct a clothing store in the back part of his liquor store," complained a laborer of Braddock in a long letter about why Amshel should not get a license in Braddock.
In May 1891, both our liquor dealers, Levi and Louis, were out of business, because the judge refused licenses to all wholesale applicants in Homestead for having spent the previous year flagrantly violating the law[1]. (Crime did pay: in that one year Levi and Louis had made $14,000 and $26,000[2] respectively, which is $363,293 and $674,687 in 2014 dollars. That money alone should explain why the majority of the men mentioned in this chapter attempted to get a liquor license during this period.) Louis went back to his family’s clothing store in Braddock and failed to get a license there the next year.[3]
[1] 5/8/1891 Homestead paper. They sold retail quantities of liquor direct to consumers — a double ding against them. [2] Pittsburgh Daily Post, 5/2/1891, p.2; 5/3/1890 Hstd paper. These figures were mid-to-high for wholesalers in Allegheny County. Inflation calculator: http://www.westegg.com/inflation/ [3] 3/18/1892 Pgh Post Gazette