The year is 1880.  A man walks into a bar and has a seat.  The barkeeper, finishing the wipedown of the bar, asks him, “What’ll you have?”

“I’d like two fingers of whiskey, please,” the man responds.  The barkeeper tosses the towel over his shoulder, grabs a glass, promptly pours the whiskey, and sets it on the counter in front of the man.

“That’ll be 10 cents,” the barkeeper says.

“That’s pretty steep.  I ain’t got 10 cents,” the man replies.

“Well if you don’t have what it takes to pay for your drink, there’s the door,” the frustrated barkeeper declared as he gestured towards to doorway.

The man appears pensive for a moment, and then looks up at the barkeep and says, “I’ll tell you what.  See that spittoon right here?  It looks to be about half full.  I’ll drink from it however much it takes for you to give me that whiskey free of charge.”

Taken aback and a little confused, the barkeeper responds, “Look pal, I don’t WANT you to drink from the spittoon.  That does nothing for me.  Why would I give you a free whiskey if you do that?”

The man simply says, “I’m not sure, but I figure what the hell, why not give it a try?”

The man picks up the large spittoon with both hands, lifts it up to his face, tilts it back and starts drinking from it.

Shocked, the barkeeper stammers, “My God man, don’t do that!”

Yet the man continues to drink from the spittoon. “Please, stop drinking that filth!”

The man tilts the spittoon back even further and continues to guzzle its contents.

“FINE, fine, I’ll give you your whiskey, it’s on the house!  Just stop drinking from the spittoon!”

Drops of brown fluid run down the man’s cheeks and neck as he tilts the spittoon back even further and continues to down the liquid inside.  Mouth agape, the barkeeper stares at the man in stunned silence.  Finally, the man finishes drinking all of the spittoon’s contents, and sets the empty container on the counter with a loud clang.

The barkeeper was incredulous. “Why didn’t you stop drinking when I told you that I’d give you the whiskey for free?”

“I couldn’t stop,” the man replies.

“Why not?” asks the barkeeper.

The man says, “It was all one strand.”