New-York tribune., 1879-01-09
TILE THREE.KLDS RTLE.


playing there.
TIE THRfE-BEDS RULE.
The decision of Justice Kilbreth holding
Commissioners of Excise liable to punishment
! if they wilully grant license to one whose
| house is in no proper sense a hotel, ought at
| least to dspel the idea that keeping three
! snare beds is all that can be eX-
acted of an applicant for license There
Is such notion, but it has only the
weakest foundation. 1t is derived from a
provision of the Excise Law of 1857. That
Act was intended to establish a comprehensive
system of licensing for the whole State, not for
tins city alone. 1t prescribed the appointment
of Commissioners of Excise, who should have
power TO grant licenses to " keepers of inns,
taycrns and hotels" and forbade lIcens-
ing any person, unless the commissioners
should certify in the license that the
| applicant was to keep an inn, tav-
cm or hotel. The theory of restricting
to innkccprrs the privilege OF selling llquor
to be drunk on the premises is well under
stood, though it has become obscurcd in popu-
lar temperance discussions. Ii is that the law
may rightly forbid the sale and drinking Of
!qdor in places of miscellaneous general
resort, and throughout the business parts OF
Il town, but cannot interfere to pro-
| hlit Individuals from drinking what
! they please at their several homes then, a.
traveller, sojouning at an inn have no
| other nome, the inn is their home for the
time beng and the innkccper must be al
lowed to sell in order to place his guests on a
| level with residents of the place IN the p1v-
/ Il Of tlt,.ip Gin
This idea is little recognized in practice, but
it undcrlics the scheme Of license laws rs
they originated.
In furtherance Of this idea, the Act of 1877
declared that every keeper OF an inn, tavern
or hotel should keep in his house at least
three spare beds for his guests. The Act does
not say or mean that this is all he need do.
| The law was to operate throughout the State,
aud this requirement was made applcablc
everywhere, in villages and towns as well
as in cities ; not as a standard for deter
mining what is IN inn everywhere, but as Il
duty which must not be neglected anywhere.
Below this line the law forbade a license ;
above it the question was east upon the COM
miSsOncrS whether the house of the applicant
was an inn, a tavern, or Il hotel, or was not one
the law, deliberately and with recognition
that they have been extensively employed i'll
laws of various states. They have been the
subject of numerous decisions, the drift of
which is that at the present day the terms
are substantially synonymous, and mean Il
house kept TO shelter and feed travellers
rs they come and go at their own pleasure
Inn is the -hOnOred English word 1t has
held its meaning substantially unchanged Tor
centuries. Tavern and hotel are OF CONT
mental origin. The first once meant mere
wine-shOp but has gradually risen, In use, to
equal Inn in meaning, though perhaps not III
popular associations. Hotel formerly meant Il
mansion of wealthy, noble or ecclesiastical
proprict0rship, where, for want OF inns III the
ncighborhood, travellers were, by CUSTOM
Hospitality entertained; it has become re-
duced in legal meaning to be an equlva-
lent of inn, though arStOcraIlc aSsocia-
tons hang around ii still; it Is, as
Mr.. Weller would say, more tenderer
"w0rd." But the entertainment of travellers
is the central notion in either term. 1t Is
because travellers are unacquainted i'll the
place to wncn they come, and unprOvided
with even the immediate ncceSsares OF hte
be innkcepcls the impartial duty of enter
tanning all who apply and accords to them
corresponding privileges, including that OF
selling beverages which residents of the place
are supposed (by theory which has ceased
to be enfolccdD to enjoy only at their homes
The inns entertainment of travellers must be
in the twof0d aspect of giving food and lOdg-
mg restaurant or saloon Is not an inn !;
neither is Il lodging house, nor, as one or two
court, have taken the trouble to decide, "A
Pullman slccplug-car For the former does
not give shelter and the latter does not sup
ply food. And the entertainment must be
accorded at the will of the traveller. y pro-
prictor who holds himself out To receive such
guests only AS he accepts, and on special
agreement for length OF stay, keeps u board
g-hOuSc, not an mn.
These, then, are the matters which must be
asccrtancd in deciding whether house Of
public entertainment Is an Inn, tavern or Il
hotel And the Act OF 1897 casts the duty
of asccrtainng them upon Commissioners Of
Excise ungovernrd by any such ridiculous
definition as that three spare beds make Il
hotel. That idea enters into the statute only
rs a minimum duty whch is laid upon inn
keepers everywhere, no matter how limited
the demand they undertake to supply, or the
patronage likely to reward them.
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THE NEU CAPiiOL.
The dedication OF a great and costly building to