Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1882-08-25


people situated Just as they were, more's the |
pity. A thrifty New England village it was,
with some two thousand inhabitants, good |
railroad facilities, quite varied industrial in |
terests, and not bar-room or saloon within
its borders. A drunken man in its streets
was a rarity, and was sure to have come from
outside and even in the Centre the streets
were as quiet and peaceable after dark as o
country lane. But the most remarkable fea-
ture of the place was the character of its Irish
population. They occupied part of the
town called the Hillside. Almost every man
owned a small house with q bit Of land and a
garden, where the children worked and played,
with plenty OF room, and sweet air and sun
shine without stint. Ingersoll waxed quite
eloquent as he set forth to me the satisfaction
he used to take in this state Of things In
dustrious, temperate, even neat and orderly
(in their fashion, these Irish families stood,
he thought, for good specimens of what Am
erica can make of her foreigu-born citizen if
he can only be got out of the great towns and
have a chance to earn bit of land and make
a homestead"
"Yes," began, for this is hobby of mine
But Washburn lifted a silencing finger and
looked at the clock.
'Your well known views will be respectful
ly listened to some other day, if you please"
said he, politely Just now Ingersol's story
has the floor"
subsided into silence
I'm an evil hour the serpent entered this
paradise in the form of fellow who opened
drinking hole in a cellar at the Centre, and
by every low art enticed the working-men in
to it. As they passed to their work in the
morning or back at noon or night, one after
another would drop down those fatal steps.
I'm less than a month the little town could
no longer boast of quiet evenings. At the
Centre the street often rang with profane
words angry cries, and noisy, discordant
songs Later in the night the Hillside settle
ment echoed with the uproar bred in that
miserable cellar. After many vain attempts,
a case was made out against the keeper of the
drinking hole he was sent to jail and the
den was closed. But the mischief was already
done Habits of drinking had grown upon
many of the men, and into the minds of many
came the idea that far more money could be
made by liquor selling than by day labor.
| The prohibitory law was in force, and the ma
| iority Of Sumner voters favored it. What of
| that? The places where liquor could be pro-
cured, on the Hillside and elswhere, soon
numbered more than score, and the men and
women who kept them laughed at the law
when they did not swear at it.
"Selectmen, reform clubs, Good Templars,
| temperance men of every stripe, united in
efforts to break up this sort of thing, but to
no purpose few seizures of few gallons
of bad liquor, very few convictions and fines,
many failures to obtain sufficient testimony
| before the court-this was ALL The evil grew.
| People settled down to the conviction that it
was a hopeless case. Many said Change the
law some being for stricter prohibition and
some for a stringent license law; others said,
Better repeal all liquor laws and fall back on
the Nuisance Act"
"Ingersoll felt keenly the change in the
| place. He had become acquainted with many
Of the Irish whom he had employed upon his
place, where he was doing all sorts of work,
| and he felt great interest in them and their
fortunes-for you know Inky' bad always
plenty of the milk of human kindness. He
couldn't bear to see these men and their wives
and children going to the bad so fast aud his
| wife laid the trouble 10 heart even more than
| he He said it became a nightmare to them /;
| il was the drop of wormwood that embttered
all their pleasures. They talked it over and
over until fairly sick and tired of the subject,
and at last imposed law of total abstinence
from the whole topic, agreeing that any men,
ber of the household who broke the lawmust
pay fine.
''The laughs caused by this arrangement
were a decided improvement, Ingersoll says
on the tears and the moodiness that such con-
versations had been wont to cause in Mrs. In
| gersoll and in himself respectively.
"'AIatters had stood thus in Sumner for
nearly two years said he, when one night
my wife met me at the door with the fine "a
fye-oent piece) in her outstretched palm,
while in the other hand she held the New
York Evening Post. l laughed, and asked
who had been talking liquor shops. 1t is l
who propose TO talk it now, Increase said
she, with al eager flush, but no smile on her
face and she csuld hardly wait till l got in
to my slippers and my armchair before she
began to read to me an account of the means
taken by committee of citizens in a certain
Swedish town to abate drunkenness
"Oh, l remember the story" interrupted
Washburn. 'rhe plan was to license certain
men to sell spirits, but to require them to sell
at such price that their profit was very small,
while they were allowed to make as much
profit as they could on the food and the
wholesome drinks which they were also re-
quired to furnish. Hence it was for their in
tercst to encourage the purchase of these lat
ter articles, and to discourage tipping AT
the same time there was no chance for un-
licensed liquor sellers, as they couldn't under.
sell the others"
"Just about what Ingersoll told me-" said
Washbum.
''But that couldn't be done in this country, II
continued. SIT would be secuted as gov
ernment monopoly and interference and what
not, in spite of its evident wisdom and shrewd
ness"
'Just about what Ingersoll reported him
self as replying to his enthusiastic little wife,
answered Washburn. $50 the matter, to heI
great disappointment, dropped for the mo
ment But it had put an idea into our friends
head which worked and worked till it took a
shape not ouly to one New England village
but to universal human nature. Old Increase
hadn't travelled all over creation for nothing.
1 -. oil tr
a wuok later he too profered the regulation
half dime to buy the right to open the ia
booed subject, and thus he spake TO his atten
tive wife
Molly, you know old Finnegan is {
thorough going temperance man, perfectly
honest and Trustworthy, and great authorit!
among the Irish into the bargain. What dC
you say to my furnishing him the money t
5 buy out 0'Rourke, up on the Hillside, an'
l to set up grocery store and coHee-hous'
= and eating.room right there, where first rat
hot tea aud coffee, baked beans and potatoes
soup, bread and butter and cheese, can b.
. had at low prices in a quiet, tidy place, an'
Q whero a man can smoke his pipe and have
4 chance TO read his newspaper, OF have on
read to him ? oh. wouldn't that be jus
= lovely. Increase You see, Molly, We nigh
, get Finnegan and two of his neighbors mad
= special ooustables, in case of trouble from I'll
d disposed fellows. The priest would oertalnl
e favor the enterprise l think it can be done
and believe it would prove amighty intuenc
d for good--a lively piece of leaven up in tina
!, lump They could still get their horr
n whiskey at the old places fatered the wife
e 'Of course, said Ingersol, that can't be helE
l. ed. But there would be ralying-point fu
d the opponents Of liquor and besides that, ia
n stead of the drinking places being the onl
l. resorts, there would be a room far more a
% tractive than any of them, where hunger an
thirst and social instincts could all be sati
rs fed at price unknown before for cheapnes
s. But, Molly dear, if We do that, We must sta
# at home next summer, instead Of going
10 Mount Desert, and can't have my new barr
10 nor you your new greenhouses eh ? 'Pooh