He conducted the
business with his usual shrewdness. The saloons were all well managed
by Germans, who, as a drinking people, are the most orderly in the
world. It was not generally known that McQuade was interested in the
sale of liquors. His name was never mentioned in connection with the
saloons.
One of these saloons was on a side street. The back door of it faced
the towpath. It did not have a very good reputation; and though, for
two years, no disturbances had occurred there, the police still kept
an eye on the place. It was on the boundary line of the two most
turbulent wards in the city. To the north was the Italian colony, to
the south was the Irish colony. Both were orderly and self-respecting
as a rule, though squalor and poverty abounded. But these two races
are at once the simplest and most quick-tempered, and whenever an
Irishman or an Italian crossed the boundary line there was usually a
hurry call for the patrol wagon, and some one was always more or less
battered up.
Over this saloon was a series of small rooms which were called "wine
rooms," though nobody opened wine there.
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