Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1874-05-15
The Temperance Wave Strikes the Cross.Roass.
CoNFEDRIr X ROADS, }
(Which is in the State NV Kentucky

| oihe ho iOupic dgOlu Dut VIII IL llteS on
the Crossroads. Misforchoon has mark,
the Crossroads for its own.
The last Tuesday, Bascom got post
card on wich it was statid that on the Fl
day followin delegashen NV ladies' fro
New Boston, manufacturer village starte
by lot Of Yankees over about ten mil,
from here, where they don't sell no spirit
wood visit the Crossroads and try the eff
cacy Nv prayer onto Bascom, TO see eff the
Good not konvert him to stop his sole-d'
stroyin, demOralizin biziness. E. Bascol
red the postal card (or rather ez | red it fc
him), he wuz picter to look upon. II
kneez knoct together and his face turned
CHASTITY pale, and his hand trembled so tina
it wuz with difficulty that he Good raise
glass of likker to his lips.
"My sole-destroyin biznessl'' said he
my bizness sole-destroyin Good heavens
what next ~
"My time is about up, guess" remark
Deekin POgram. 81 hey seen strang
things in my lifetime, but when am no
allowed to take my regular drinks it is tim
wus goin hence"
1.-The idee,'' said Issaker Gayitt, "tha
sellin Ikker or drinkin it is demoraiizin.
hev drunk likker all my life, and
At this pint lssaker's wife cum in, AM
wanted lssaker to 60 and get some rice, am
then 90 home and split some wood. Issake
wantid to know wat she come there for, ant
the unreasonable woman burstid into tears
and sed she couldn't split wood, with III
shoes and three inches of snow on tn
| ground, and that there wuzn't thing il
the house for the sick baby to eat. and e
lssaker would spend half the time at worl
that he did loafn in Bascom's and half th'
money on his children that he did for likkei
and
lssaker didn't allow her to finish her on
reasonable harangue. lie took her by the
shoulder and showed her out of the door
and swore that he didn't know how it wui
in Ohio and lnjeany, but he'd he ID j
in Kentucky woman shoodent keep in hel
proper spear. He wuzent agoin to allow
no woman to dictate to him wat he siood d,
with his time or money nuther.
Capt. McPelter remarkt that ef his wife
ever jined in sich demonstraShen she'G
wish she hadn't His wife tried to stoI
him from taking another drink wunst, after
he felt his oats and he'd throwd cradle
with a six months baby out Nv the door, and
the black eye she got wuz warnin To her
never to interfere with his prerogative nc
more.
Poor Bascom wuz cast down. lie said
Amerikin liberty wuz gone, when a paSsul
W women got to goin about interferin with
4 mans biznis. But he should adopt vigOr-
Gus measures. He'd never surrender
never.
Friday come and Bascom wuz ready for
EN-. Every wun Nv our persuasion in the
Corners he'd ordered his wife to keep strikl Y
in doors, and on no akkount vencher out
doors in the day. Bascom asked Us all to
stay with him and see thro' it, IL wich we
all agreed Them ez wuz married and kept
house, went home to fix up their doors and
nail boards over the broken glass Nv their
winders, 50 that their wimmin shOOdnt see
outside Its no small matter to close up all
the holes in the houses at the Corners.
Well, at II O'Clock procession Nv vim
min did make their appearance at the lower
end Nv the village. and they moved slowly
to ards BascomS G. W. wuz a. pale a. a
sheet
&c. W" sed |, there Is but one thing
you kin do. Rally yoor friends about 700,
and make head against this unholy crOo-
sade. The regular frequentees of the place
are fritened, and are not here. Bring EN-
here Bring EN- here to wunst Swing out
a placard wich shel read
'.Likker free to all doorin the eontinyoo-
ance nv this fanatikle campane Ho, all ye
that thirst Come and drink without
money and without price,"
This, e. W. will fetch EN- in, and ez
long ez the likker Is free they will stay in
and give you their moral support Shel |
write the placards" >"
q. W. waverei. lie cast one glance at
his kegs. and sighed hesitatingly. | cast
one glance at them kegs, and wuz deter
mined that 81 good an Opportunity shood
not he lost.
..Tla q" sed {, the foe they come they
come To hesitate now is to he lost. The
head Nv the invadin party hez turned the
corner; shel write p
..Yes - sed Bascom. bursting into tears !;
write Fl they shet me up I'm rooined,
and eff YOU have free drinks I'm busted.
But Id ruther take the free drinks part Of
it.
Certainly" sed lssaker Gayitt. sooth-
ingly; Gree drinks, by all means After
ali. Baseom, it amounts to the same thing.
Its free drinks anyhow, for yon hey to
charge EN- To Us, don't YOU -
And 50 | writ the placard and hiStei 1t up
at the door. The result was majical. In
less than three minnits the glad nOoze had
reached every house in the village. and
there wuz gathered together in Baseom's
sich solid mass Nv liberty lovin men ez had
never been seen together at the Cross
roads
Baseom appointed two ov Us to draw lik-
ker for the thirsty crowd, and then we
throwd open the doors, calkilating to greet
en- with such cheers ez wood etiectooally
silence all the singin and prayin they coed
do.
The wimmin approached. We Good
me. They were all closely vailed. tz I'll
approached the door directed the likker 10
be served out faster, 50 ez to get the boys
tuned up to the right pitch. But, alas
they didn't stop! They didn't stop to sing
or to pray or nothin. They simply passed
bv pulling their walls close to their faces
and snickerin. looked thro the vail NV
one Nv EN- and saw whiskers.
But with rare presence Cf mind | sed
n0thin.
DRAW more likker," | shouted, they
will be back in a moment"
Bv the time this drink WIS down Bascom
WIZ so far gone that he didn't know nuthin.
He got lanatic, and springin from the coun-
ter insisted on everybody's not only drinkin
but that every man nv us shood fill bottle
and take it with us.
1t is unnecessary TO state what followed.
The reyilry waxed furious, and by night the
bodies Nv the fallen were piled on top NV
each four deep Every drop Nv hkker in
the house wuz gone, for wat wuzn't drank
he'd bin allowed to waste, for men drawd it
who wuz too tite to shet the faucets. Bas-
CON wuz laid out, Deekin Pogram was
snorin. ez tho he hadn't slept for week,
and |, seasoned vessel that am, wuz the
wust played out Nv any NV EN-.
The next mornin Joe Biger venchered
around, and asked him concernin the vim
min.
.Wimmin,'' sed he, ''them wuzn't vim
min. They wuz boys employed in the
factory in New Boston. Nasty" sed he con-
tidenshly. MY opinion is that that cuss,
Pollock, put this up on you with view to
rOblniH Dt-tbn. L "ANAi
one NV them factry men, who is his brother
in-law, and heered the brother-in-law say
that it wuz too good not to do It. | pre-
sume that is what they referred to. Bat
don say that told you"
Passing Pollock's an hour after, heerd
him and Bigler latin vocifurously, and
knowed that this wuz wat they WIZ latin
at.
But thank Heaven, the joke isn't on to
me. got twenty square drinks Out ov it
for nothing. But do pity Baseom. His
heart is broke His empty barrels, his
broken glasses and bottles, bear mute tes-
timony to his losses. May Heaven forgive
Pollock and Bigler.
PETROLEUM v Massey, p. NJ.
There is counter crusade-a men 5 move
ment-up in Michigan, called the g." calico
movement" which is designed as COM
panion piece to temperance, q reciprocal
pledge signing. The men form praying
clubs and pray the women to abstain from