"In God We Trust"

"CORDIALS" and "BEVERAGES" read a pair of brilliant orange signs above the shrieking-green bay windows of a shop that opened last week at No. 201 East 44th Street, Manhattan. A small device on the door showed the American eagle rampant, announced that the shop was guarded by the Supreme Protective System Co., ip East 23rd Street. Twinkling in the display windows, dazzling passersby, were bottles, arrogantly full.

Men and women (not children) who stopped to gaze and gape were hailed from the doorway by a clerk. Shouted he. though a traffic policeman was on duty less than 50 feet distant: "Come in friends! We're selling wide open! Just got $30,000 worth of stuff!"

Inside the shop, on shelves as green and spruce as a housewife's kitchen cabinet, gleamed all sorts of whiskies, gins, ports, sherries, liqueurs--some labeled "non-alcoholic," others with standard booze labels --all offered by the genial clerk with gusto:

"Guaranteed.! Analyze it, mister! I esk you personally to analyze it! We call this our 'ladies' shop'! Four more we got in New York, and on Broadway one silver and black! Deliver anything anytime from 8 a. m. to 2 a. m. Just phone Murray Hill 7522 and ask for Mack. You see this cherry brandy?"--holding up a large bottle in which floated four cherries--"That stuff is 90 proof, ninetee proof!"

Prices quoted per standard bottle: gin $1; port or sherry $1.50; brandy $3; Scotch $4; rye $6; creme de cacoa $2; kiimmel $3; benedictine $5; Cointreau $5 --most of these in bottles identifiable at a glance as fakes, but a few magnificent imitations. "I'm telling you straight now, Friend, this what we call Spanish port is California, see? Your money back on anything you don't like!"

A container marked Veritable Benedictine D. 0. M., taken from the shopwindow, was found exactly to resemble the French original in bottle and labels. But the two red wax seals bore the faint impress of a coin stamped with the word LIBERTY and below In God We Trust--a U. S. 25-c- piece, latest issue. Smell deceptive, taste unmistakably raw. Report by the Mirkin Analytical and. Pathological Laboratory, Inc., 133 Second Avenue: "Proof 90; alcohol by volume 45%; extractive matter [i. e. benedictine flavor] 23%; wood alcohol, none. . . . The examined sample is free from harmful ingredients and can be used for drinking purposes."

Opened soon, just around the corner on Third Avenue from the first green-fronted store, a second: The Wholesome Products Co., malt & hops, imported cordials and glassware. This too was guarded by the Supreme Protective System, but the clerk, a mere youth, appeared to be in a state of chronic fright.

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