A strange bartending story from The New York Times about South Carolina:

In the late 1800s and during the Prohibition era, Charleston was renowned for its "blind tiger bars." Customers would pay an admission fee to see blind tigers in the backrooms of restaurants. When they discovered that there was no blind tiger -- and there were never any blind tigers -- the restaurant owner would make up for the wink-and-nod rip-off by offering a few "free" drinks that miraculously cost exactly the same as the blind-tiger admission fee.