Connecticut western news., 1884-01-16
BETHEL LETTER.

DE AAEAks
 Editor NewS:-Possibly 8 few lines from this banner town of morals anu stiff hats may not prove uninteresting tC some of the many readers of your Nulu VeStigia RetrorSum" taking journal.
 It might be in order to lead off with q cursorv history, in letter like this, bu,, as the saying is, '"There is properly no history--only biography" and as a biography of the dead wouldn't interest your readers and truthful biography of some of our living moguls might be distasteful to the subjects and lay the | News liable to prosecution for islander, tparhaps it will be polite to simply say t lat our history IS hidden in the mists ofantiquity" or buried in oblivion. Bethel glories in the name of a ''banner town, (which stands for nothing more nor less than that it takes th, c1ke" Ito apply an un-banner term) ill temperance, morals, righteousness anu angelic lovelIness generally. A Simon pure Bethelite may be easily distin- guished from any other species by tn, heavenly halo around his noble brow and over his nose, copy of Watts hymns or Hoyle's games sticking out o1 his pocket, his pants baggy and worn at the knees and a pocket full of money. If, Mir Editor, you should ever come ih contact with man whom you suspect to be BetheliGe, and these distinctive features don't stick out prominently enough to convince you positively, you can easily satisfy yourself as to his identity-not by doing as Jay Under wood once told an inquisitive drummer that Freemasons dld to distinguish one another i'll the dark-but by addressing him as "Mister Judd" "(two-thirds of til, population of Bethel being Judds). l. he does not respond to that appellation, clll him "Alister Ferry" (one-half of the osher third being Ferrys). If that fails to touch hls heart, ask him what he'll take. If he says, Not anything, thank ye, you may safely aud positively con- clude that you don't know whether he's Bethelite or not, but you can afford to give him the benefit of the doubt and locate him somewhere else.
 Our favorite hobby is the temperance question. The town never voted license until the fall of 1882 and that vote was overwhelmingly reversed at tEe last election. The temperance leaders are zealous, keen scented and full of fight and can invest suspects with S15 and costs, regulations with very little effort It is safe to say that, thanks to the omniscience of Our devoted leaders, there isn't thimble full of election fluid (hop or other privileged bitters not counted) sold or drank within the town limits. We have even now pen itent sinner-an Irishman-languishin ill the Danbury jail for possessing that unfortunate attribute, a ''reputation, '' while his wife, who was convicted ol harboring that same identical reputation, still revels in her native freedom, having paid her own fine. However, there is nc liquor drank by home talent and some are so conscientious that they even skin the corporation water before drinking it. The water will stand 1t though goodness knows, as there was a Dutcl boy. drowned in the reservoir last sum mer and those with vivid imagination insist that they can detect the taste o sour krout and limburger cheese in i yet. When 8 Bethelite feels the neet of stimulants, he gets Danburian t, breathe in his face and is stimulated forthwith. At the drug stores-thos dispensaries of quick sales and ''smal profits s"-in order to get few drams 0 the ardent, for cases of sickness, deat or matrimony. the applicant, beside being armed with doctors prescriptio (50 cents) is forced by the conscientiou druggist to sign the pledge in the pres ence of witnesses, repeat the command ments and apostles creed backward. forwards and crosswise, and take
 double-jointed copper bound oath thu the liquor is to be used for axle greas or bed bug poison and not for intern application.
 We have population of 5000 zoe moral characters and the princip article of manufacture is hats, the being IA hat manufactures here, turnil out upwards of million hats yea With this population and fourishir industry Bethel might be quite
 go-ahead town but for it's close pro imity to Danbury, only three miles di tant As it is, we are only profitab suburb of Danbury and Danbury req the benefit of our industry and saps u vitality from our local institutions. Or propensity for spending abroad u money earned at home keeps us years behind the age in local develo
 ment; 1t has driven from our mid branches of business that would Ina, helped build us up if supported ar has belittled our stores into one hors catch penny institutions With us tl true spirit of patriotism extends I further than the fowery rhetoric of
 Fourth of July oration and the practic theory of home support is a foreie issue, excepting in such rare cases
 when farmer taps his own boots. TT hundreds of men and women emplovt in our hat shops earn upward of $l000 a year, the bulk of which goes to fattt the purses of the merchants and bu' ness men of Danbury. But then, Y claim no one has right to dictate to
 how or where we shall spend onr none