St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-10-24
The War on Liquor Sellers.
RUTLAND YET AHEAD.

RUTLAND YET AHEAD.
In the Rutland county court the fol
lowing state cases were disposed of
State VS.. A. C. Bates, keeping nuisance,
plea guilty fined 500 and costs taxed
at S19.9l, with the alternative sentence,
if not paid within twenty-four hours, OF
1863 days in the House of correction.
John w. Champion, nuisance, 500 fine,
costs S19.S1 or 1868 days in House OF
Correction. Charles F. Perkins, nui-
sance, S25 fine, costs $24.S1 or 153 days
in House of Correction, and seven other
respondents on the same charge, the
aggregate of their fines and costs being
81 ,053. The Herald says: The "vic-
tins" of the grand jury of the present
term acknowledge regretfully the
thoroughness of the campaign. The
amount of fines which have been i'm
posed during the term will amount to
between $4,000 and $4,000.
THE NEW WAY OF CLOSING.
1t would seem from the following
item from the Herald that the officers
of the law don wait for the prOprie-
tor to board up his doors they save
him that expense by closing them fol-
him:
The several persons whom the recent
court found guilty of keeping nuisances
were visited by Sheriff Peabody Tues
day afternoon and their saloons ''pOst-
ed" The posting will be continued
to-day. This form of law is by no means
the immense and glaring instrument so
many rumsellers anticipated and fear
ed, but Il modest little slip of paper
stating briefly in effect that the said
place is closed to the said saloon keeper
and signed by the sheriff. All of those
visited accepted the situation quietly,
and in some instances sadly-the little
document closing the door as tightly to
them as was the robbers cave to Ali
Bahia until he learned the open sesame.
BRATTLEBORO HOTELS CLOSED.
The landlords and proprietors of the
Brooks, American and BrattlebOrO
Houses at BrattlebOro, and the Glen
House at the west village have decided
to quit entirely the sale of liquor, and
on the 18th to close their houses to
transient trade. The parties have signed
and executed a bond for $500 to stick
together in the enterprise until they can
have satisfactory assurances that theil
business won't be molested again. The
landlords of the Brooks and American
are now under $500 bonds for their
second offences the landlord of the
Glenn is under 5000, and Dunton &
Campbell of the BrattlebOrO have been
convicted and fined for their first of.
fence under the nuisance law. AT the
county court Judge Ross gave positive
notice to those men who are under bonds
and whose cases are continued tina
they must expect no mercy, that if they
continued in the traffic they would sure
ly have to go to the state work house
or forfeit their bonds and be subject tt
another prosecution. The Brattlebort
House folks, all the saloon keepers, an(
all the drug stores, with one exception
in each case, have been convicted o
one offense, and they must surely go t.
the House of Corr ection if caught again
provided the law is fully executed.
COMMENTS ON THIS MADNESS.
i springfield Republican,
: The Brattleboro hotel keepers ar
making very foolish exhibition o
STIFFNESS in closing their houses in or
der to render the prohibitory law I'm
popular. There is not the slightes
probability that they can accomplish
anything in the way of securing tn
, substitution of license law by thi
method, and they will damage them
, selves and the business interests of tn
town, besides mountaineering traveller
who are in no degree responsible 70
the present state of things. But it
safe to predict that they won't hold on
; in their policy long.
ISt. Adams Messengerl
: Hotel keepers who get prosecuted fC
. selling liquor and then close their house
r to have revenge and coerce public sen
timent are not entitled to sympathy o
3 respect. The public is not easily driver
1 and is not yet ready to admit that
= good hotel cannot be kept withou
t liquor. Those Bouifaces who say it ca
J, not had better close for good and Ell
# gage in some other business. The pre-
It hlbitory law cannot and ought not
e be enforced against others unless it
e enforced against inn keepers. TIL
d Washington county states attorney an
e grand jury have just made themselve
conspicuous for Partially and folly
II proceeding against all other liquo
t, vendors in Montpelier and leaving til
i hotel keepers exempt. They have n
1t right to thus administer the law, whic
1t is no respecter of persons. If they ca
) not enforce it in all cases alike, the
/ admit that it is defective; if they ca
G and do not, they become amenable t
: law themselves. Drinking is an enol
: nous evil, but it may be doubted if il
7. Ill effects are greater than those whic
y follow a cOwardly or invidious admir-