The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1884-05-03

of Ohio's famous "whiskey canal"
From between the corn-rOws in the
field, / saw many time smoke CT
the "still.hoase" spread over the fair
valley of the Miami, like an ominous
cloud, prophetic of woe. But the
owners of those distilleries were, forty
years ago. the leading men of the
county-they were our capitalists
among them were bank-presidents
and directoTs-some of them lived in
mansions, and were wont to rival the
style of princes. Indeed, they were
counted fortunate class, and surely
rode high on properties wave. Thus
matters stood with the whiskey-
makers of that favored Ohio county
twenty FIVE years ago. And to-day?
Well. not one of those "still-hOuse
fortunes" is left! In every instance
disaster and ruin has overtaken them.
And, not only loss of iII-gotten gain:
in a number of cases the Judgment
was infinitely worse than loss Of
wealth. Nine years ago was on the
ground again, and through my own
eyes and ears 1 learned of the doom
of number of those whiskey-rich
families. Four brOthers-English--
men-owned and operated two large
establishments but a half hours walk:
from my fathers house. They seem.
ed to my boyish eyes like princes.
every one. Thirty-fve years ago the
youngest of the four retired to a
farm, and, so far as 1 know, has a.
competence to day. The second one
was, twenty years ago, carried from
his beautiful mansion by strangers.
and lowered to drunkards grave.
The third, after making a fortune
from the still. became a princely
farmer, and twenty years ago went
down to premature grave, heart
broken over the shame of a family in
cest. The oldest, the richest and most
naughty of the four, owner indeed Of
an entire village, WAS, nine years ago..
after spending the last ten thousand
of a vast fortune misfortune y on a.
clique of criminal lawyers, engaged
to save the eldest son Il remember
how my boy heart often enyied him..
cantering by on his gaily caparison-
ed pony, and shuddered to hear his,
shocking profanity from the punish
ment due the murderer
Another-a near neighbOr-had six
sons and an only daughter. In my
childhood we played together, by
times. Their home to me, seemed a
very paradise; but it was always
filled with the fumes of the still, not
twenty rods away. That onlydaugh-
ter, a lovely maid. scarce beyond her
teens, slipped by rope from her
chamber window. and clipped with
an oily hlackleg, in the dark Of the
night. The wife Of the eldest sOns,
crazed by rum scenes, diedin the mad:
house. Those six sons, rosy, healthy.
promising boys they all were once,
one after the other have gone to-
wreck on the horrible rum tide, till,
nine years ago, the last hobbled about
on Gathering stump, as he swept
the filth of the livery stalls !! And of
all the others, once whiskey-rich, but
little that's better could now he said.
I saw a $4,000 mansion stand I'M
tenanted in the midst of its neglected
grounds, and the woe-making fac
tory. with tumble in roo near by,
And gazing at the deSolate scene
striking witness to the curse on it all
my companion said':' "Eyen so it
come upon them ALL OF the twenty
seven stills once run in this county.
but one is left, and that an Outlawed'
thing, seeking to hide from the eyes
of the law. But who shall tell the
woe they have worked !" Even so :;
1 could count by scores, the men and
hOys around me in early childhood,
who have gone down under the curse
of rum, in the shadows of those TWEEN
tyseven distilleries. They are gone.
And. mark you, the people of that
county have not lost a market for
their golden corn. They see the truth.
in all plainness to-day, the "still-
house" was their bitterest curse. And
so is ii ever!
SHoUP.
Jahnst0wn.
| 30