The Daily Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Or.) 1876-1883, 1883-07-20
Closing saloons 2. M;dnirht


No one act Of Mayor Stowell has
caused So much comment rs his order
to close saloons at midnight, and the
result of the order is watched by
cities all over the country with much
interest. We fear that the mayor has
never experienced the sensation Of
being drunk after midnight. There is
no more comparison between az ordi-
nary afternoon drunk and drunk
after midnight, than there is between
liver and quail Oh toast. That's what
a drunkard of over thirty years stand
ing tells us. He says that an after
noon or an evening drunk is very
tame, because the drunken man is
constantly haunted by the fear that
he will meet somebody who knows
him and who Is sober. But after
midnight he can stagger about and be
monarch of all he surveys. After
midnight he disturbs nobody but the
policeman and night watchman, and he
can whoop it up to his hearts con-
tent If he feels that he can enjoy
himself by throwing beer keg
through saloon window, I crowd
does not collect 10 modest him and
make him afraid. The mayor has
evidently not taken into considera-
tion the enjoyment he is cutting of.
And by his order TO close at midnight,
the mayor has destroyed, entirely,
the effect Of the national hymn. en-
titled, eve Won't 60 Home Til
Morning. What party Of convivial |
gentlemen could have the heart to
sing the old song around the festive
board, when they know that when the
hands of the clock point to twelve
they would be bounced from the sa-
loon, and become wanderers on the
face of the earth, with no friendly
bar at which they could slack their
thirst Thus, the old song is wiped
from the statute book, as il were, by
a stroke of the Mayors pen. With
this midnighr closing order IN force,
men have got 20 commence several
hours earlier to get drunk, if they eX-
pect TO accomplish the task before
midnight, and the mayor must know
what a hardship this will be: and how
difficult it is to get drunk in the
limited time allotted, where the beer
glasses are so small, and there IS 50
much foam in them.
The mayor will find. when it is
everlastingly too late, that some of his
constituents will be compelled to go
home comparatively sober, at twelve
o'clock, however hard they may try
to get drunk by the official schedule
time. The spectacle Of men going
home sober, at I2 o'clock, who have
always gone home drunk a few hours
later, ought TO melt the heart of even
a mayor Such state Of disgusting
sobriety viii cause strong drunkards
to weep, when they realize their hu-
initiating position. What eXcnse can
man, who has been in the habit of
going home drunk, along in the morn
ing hours, make to his wife when he
comes home at such an early hour on
ly half fulll 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 10 look upon the
excuse as too thin, and viii ask the
husband why he didn't commence to
get drunk earlier SO as to have the
feat accomplished at the hour pro-
vided by law. Women do not stop 10
reason in such cases. They cannot
realize that 1t takes time TO change
the combination of the drunkard' s
system, so that it will get in its work
three hours earlier than it has been
set TO operate for so many years.
This order of the mayor will prove q
great hardship to many hard working
women. They have got in the habit
of sleeping early in the night and
waking up at three o'clock in the
morning to help their husbands in the
house and to bed This order will
compel them TO get up at twelve
o'clock, and thus they viii be so bro
ken in their rest that the labor OF the
next day, by which they support tn,
family and furnish money for the
husbands to get drunk, will be harder
than ever. lt is plain that the mayor
never was a woman. or he would
know better than TO disarrange do
mestic affairs In such manner
There is no doubt the mayor ha
meant well 10y his order, but it j
going to make trouble. -Matco,tke
SHa.