Taken from Sober by Act of Parliament. By Fred A.McKenzie. 1896.
It may be asked why, if certain houses do not clear their expenses, their proprietors keep them open year after year. The reasons are twofold: First, the houses are usually owned by brewers, who fear that if they abandon the licenses, rival brewers may persuade the magistrates to grant additional licenses in other parts of the place. Secondly, the establishments are often used as traps for depriving the inexperienced of their stock of money. The process is very simple. A house owned by the brewer goes to the bad, custom falls off, and the receipts fail to cover the outgoings. Thereupon the the tenant is given notice to quit; and a salaried manager, skilled in the art of drawing custom, is placed in charge of it. This manager is usually a man well known in the neighbourhood, and with plenty of friends. He belongs to nearly all the friendly societies in the place, Buffaloes, Oddfellows and the rest; he can give a tip on the coming race with any man, and he is "hail fellow, well met" with every Tom, Dick, and Harry. All his friends, of course, flock to patronise him; the brewer is careful to supply specially good drink; a pull over is given for every one's measure; and soon the takings of the house are increased enormously. Then the place is advertised and a novice is attracted to it. The brewer's agent shows him the books, and is able to prove that the business is going up by leaps and bounds; and so the novice is persuaded to pay, say, £100 in cash for the good-will, and take over the house. The manager who has drawn all the custom leaves; and his friends leave with him. The poor new publican soon finds he is losing money every week, and before long he begins to get in debt to the brewer. This goes on until the debt amounts to the price he paid for the good-will. Then the agent visits him, explains that as he is evidently not suited to the trade he had better go. The brewer will kindly allow the £100 paid as good-will to go to cancel the debt; and the tenant must leave as quickly as possible. The house is then used for the fleecing of another novice.