Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1876-11-01
FROM AVERY.
Editors Ottum,c0 Courier:

/
The town Of Avery, located about
20 miles west of Ottumwa, on the
line of the G., B. u @. II. r., is q
small mining settlement, but unlike
mining communities in general, we
can boast Of quiet, orderly, intelli-
gent class of people. When we Or
ganized our "Miners' Mutual Insti-
tute," the saloons and other institu-
tons of its kind retired from the
place-the two extremes could not
meet.
A few days ago, however, a man
was found who proposed to brave
public opinion and open saloon
here. As soon as the announcement
was made that such was the case, the
citizens promptly called q meeting to
take measures to suppress it. The
meeting was held and committee
appointed to draft resolutions, who
reported the following:
SIN every question introduced to
the consideration of intelligent peo-
pie, there is right and wrong. 1t
is not the purpose of this article to
wrong any man, either personally or
in his business interests, unless, in so
doing, we do ourselves as individu-
ais or ass community, a much greater
right.
"A saloon has been opened in our
town, and if left unmOlested will,
probably, do us lasting injury. We
are privileged to protect ourselves !;
and with our knowledge Of saloons
and drinking customs, which has
been sufficiently varied to make us
competent judges, we think we are
prepared to arrive at correct conclu-
sions. Those of us who judge by
observation, remember repeated in
stances of drunkenness and disgrace
we never care to see again, the men,
DRY of which should be sufficient to
cause us to say as one nan, nee acant
no saloon here.
'Those of us who judge by expe-
rience, who know, by well learned,
hard, bitter knowledge, what the evil
is, who have as mementos, broken
characters and ruined hopes; who
must sknlk along the streets with
downcast eyes, scarcely daring to
look q man squarely in the face lest
he remember our disgrace and frown
us down; who must work year in
and year out to undo what the saloons
did for us in single month; who
can scarcely turn . leaf in the record
of our past career that is not scared
and stained with the recOllections OF
misery and shame and, now, tonight,
as the memory Of these "deadfalls,'
where we exchanged self-rcspect ard
good constitutions, for poverty and
an ignominious life, rise up before us
like Robert Ingersoll's vision of the
past, we feel in our veins . prejudice
against the very name saloon, which
will probably continue to boil along
there until the fiood-gate of life shut
in eternal rest.
land now, having stated our rea-
sons for the step, we take our posi-
ton. 1t is this:
"We consider the opening of a
saloon in this village at this time, in
the face of our known opposition, to
be an insult to us as a town, and q
disgrace upon us as people and, in
the light of our past experience, and
in view of the respect we owe our
selves and our families, we regard
this saloon as public enemy, and, as
such, we pledge ourselves to hold
aloof from its proprietor and from
those who encourage him."
The committees report was unani.
imously adopted, and that saloon
keeper went away discouraged man
The only consolation he received was
the assurance that the people would
furnish conveyance to move him out
Of town. As we served this man, SC
we will serve any other who attempts
the same thing. Thus we put evi
from among us. Yours,
| r. d. MCGREGoR,
Chris. PRossER, r,n
NJ. KNowLEs,
JOHN PLASTER.
AVERY, a., Oct. 26th, 1876.