Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1882-01-11

A Vermont correspondent Of The Spring
field hepubltc ~ disc, urses upon tho first
class hotel" topic with remarkable direct
ness and candor, rs will be seen in tho
following. We commend this truthful
picture to the attention of our readers:
The recent S. Ab.nI liquor crusade
naturally follows the revival of interest IN
temperance throughout the state, of which
/ spoke IN Il previous letter to the Re
pu6i iCan There WAS cause for it, and
lhls cause is found in the ruin wrought in
many of he stale best families by drunk,
enn, S. In all our larger villages the list
of promising young men who have in the
pas few years become apparently hope
iers sots is Il long one, and have not been
led into temptation by liquor obtained in
low "doggeres. They are the grndu.
ates OF III lizard rooms and genteel bar
rooms of our first clase holes. These
hotels have mostly been built during the
past 10 or l2 years, to afford better
Accommodations for the travelling public
and attract summer visitors. But not
wilhsJanding the large sums of money in
vested in them. many believe that they
have done the state mucn more harm
than good They have generally been too
COS " TO pay and the plea in every
place is that they cannot be run success.
fully without the help afforded by the pro
fl $ of Il rum-shop. Perhaps this is true {;
it has at least been tacltly admitted by our
"best peop e." who liked to see the pub
lie travel well accommodated, and took
pride in the first class hoIel which gave
,,1 kha ,..is, s,,.t. at
The metropolitan atmosphere, however,
has not proven entirely healthy one.
The genuine summer visitor, who comes
with his family TO recruit health in the
country. is not generally very strong
customer of the hot l's bar room, thougu
he is apt to be seen good deal at the
billiard tables. The city men who leave
most meney with the bar tenders of our
hotels ale not summer guests. They are
those birds Of passage calling themselves
commercial Travellers but known to the
people generally as "drummers." There
are many good men among these, but the
majorilv ut them drink, and drink deep
They ARE good, social fellows, and it i,
their busine TO know everybody and in
vlte every body TO drink. They exercise A
powerful influence over the young men oi
the villages, and it is to them, manly, tina,
the spread of drinking habits among the
sons OF our leading business men and
cltlzens is due.
These ''fi st class" hotel bar rooms are
as destructive in one way as houses o
prostitution are in another way. Ot course
all the second third and fourth. class houses
follow snlt, for II will not do to make fsl
of one and flesh of another; and 80 it hs.
come about that we have, in nearly all oui
p incIpal villages, Il considerable number
OF tolerated liquor shops which not only
sell by he drnK, but will ill any body,
bottle without anN question except that o
the price Thus the drinking htbt is ex
tended, anu has immensely increased o
late, almost ,nlrly because Of The tDleranc'
granted t. the tir>t.cass hotel, and then
OF n, cessity, extended to every other pun
lic.huuses 1t il now the exception TO 6nt
hotel in ang place OF one thousand in
habIlnnts or upward that does not keel
what i, practically An open bar and Iiquo
store. 1t was not so len years ago.
has followed In the wake OF these fin
hnfcls, which were to do so much fO
Vermont.
An now the wall goes up from hund
rel, of households m Ide wretohed by rum
Foe older citizens who frst invested thei
mon IN The hrst-class hotel, and thel
wnk,d at is selling liquor ITO ira velers,
are at last reused By the sight of the son
WHO were TO be- the stay OF their old ~
becoming "travs.ers on the down grad
to perdlOn Their sin has found then
out; he love of money has been the roc
OF his us OF so many o her bitter evils
the mothers, sisters and wives Of thes
ruined young men are In spasm q
hatr agaln>t the rumselers. aud it |
this family II huence mainly in St. Aban
that has brought the present "crisis."
believe the people there are in earnest