Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 May 1879 — The Bell-Punch in Missouri. [ARTICLE]

The Bell-Punch in Missouri.

Missouri is preparing to adopt the bell-punch for bar-rooms. T-he advocates of the bell-punch system of taxing liquor-sellers claim that it will be more equitable than the present arbitrary State tax of SSO a year, and that it will cause the number of low whisky shops to decrease, and the consumption of beer to increase. The St. Louis Dispatch estimates that every year 600,000 barrels of beer are brewed in St. Tonis, and that one-third of this product is sold in the city at retail. Two hundred thousand barrels at 1 cent a glass—s 3 a barrel—would yield $600,000. The amount derived from alcoholic liquors at 2 cents a would probably be as much more, making a total of $1,200,000. The Dispatch adds that this is a large income, but the question is, would it ever be collected?