Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1883-07-15
CLesuSG SALOONS At MIpxIGnr.
fPeck's SUM-

feck0 Sun.
No one act Of Mayor Stovell, Of Mil
waukee, has caused % much comment
a. his order TO close saloons at mid
night, and the result of the order is
watched by cities all over the country
With much interest. We fear that the
Mayor has never experiepced the sensa-
ton Of being drunk after midnight.
Ihere Is no more comparison between
an ordinary afternoon or evening drunk
and drunk after midnight, than there
Is between liver and quail on toast.
That's what drunkard Of over thirty
years standing tells us. He saws that
an afternoon or evening drunk Is very
tame, because the drunken man ia CON
ssantiy haunted by q fear that he will
meet somebody who knows him and who
Is sober. But after midnight he can
staRRef about and be monarch Of all he
surveys. After midnight he disturbs
nobody but the policemen and night
watchmon, and he can xhoop it up IN
his hearts content. II he feels that he
can enjoy himself by throwing a beer
keg through saloon windo y. a crowd
does not collect TO modest and make him
afraid. The Mayor has evidently not
taken into consideration the enjoyment
he is cutting OF. And by his order to
close at midnight, the Mayor has de-
stroyed, entirely, the effect of the ma
tional hymn. entitled, 1--WE Won't Go
Home Till Morning." What party of
convlviai gentlemen could have the
heart to sing the old song, around the
festive board, when they knew that
when the hands Of the clock pointed to
twelve they would be bounced from the
saloon, and become wanderers on the
face OF the earth, with no friendly bar
at which they could slake their thirst.
Thus, the old song is wiped from the
statute books, as it we're, by a stroke Of
the Mayors pen. With this midnight
closing order In force, men have got TO
commence several hours ear lier to get
drunk, II they expect to accomplish the
task before midnight, and the Mayor
must know what hardship this will be;
and how difficult it is to get drunk in
the limited time allotted, where the
beer glasses are 30 small. and there is 90
much foam in them.
The Mayor will find, when il is ever
lastingly too late, that some of his con-
stituents will be compelled to 60 home
comparatively sober, at twelve O'Clock,
however hard they may try to get drunk
by the official schedule time. The Spec
tacie OF men going home sober, at II
o clock, who have always gone home
drunk few hours later, ought to melt
the heart Of even a Mayor. Such a
state of disgusting sobriety will cause
strong drunkards to weep, when they |
realize their humiliating position. What |
excuse can a man, who has been in the |
habit Of going home drunk, along in
the morning hours, make to his wife |
when he comes home at such an early |
hour only half full2 He can lay it to |
the Mayor. of course, but a wife who |
has become accustomed to such a state |
Of things will be apt to look upon the |
excuse as too thin, and will ask the hus-
band why he didn't commence to get |
drunk earlier 50 aa to have the feat 40 |
at the hour provided by Law. |
Women do not stop to reason in such |
cases. They cannot realize that it |
takes time to change the combination |
Of the drunkard's system, 30 that it will |
get in its work three hours earlier than |
it has been set to operate for 60 many |
years. This order of the Mayor will |
prove great hardship to many hard
women. They have got in the |
habit Of sleeping early in the night and |
waking mp at three o'clock in the |
to help their husbands in the |
house and to bad. This order will CON- !
pei them to get up at twelve o'clock, |
and thus they will be 90 broken in their |
rest that the labor of the next day, by
which they support the family and fur |
nish money for the husbands to get |
drunk, will b harder than ever. Il is |
plain that the Mayor never was q wo-
man, or he would know better than to
disarrange domestic affairs in such q
manner. There 10 no doubt the Mayor
has meant well by his order, but il ia
going to make trouble.