Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1888-03-30
THE Drink Mystery"

lew Weeks ago, auu lmmeuIateiy
after be 6nished, he was asked
whether or no he thought the act of
1851 entirely repealed the act Of 1867,
and be ssid be thought it did and
gave bis reasons for 30 thinking.
The sct of '6T specified certain things
to be stated in the petition, and
among them the number OF rooms,
beds. etc, for the accommodation OF
the public. The act of '87 specifies
certain things to appear in the petit
tions, says nothing about the number
OF beds and rooms, but does say that
the petitioa shall say That the place
TO be licensed is necessary for the &C.
CmmodatioD OF the public"
Some Uf the members o! ne Bar
here, Lod that the Few law is COM
pIete in itself, and Others that parts
of the old law are yet in force There
has, as vet. been no decision of the
Supreme Court on the question, aud
Judge Hazen Ids that those por-
tions of the old law not in conflict
with the new are yet in force, and
that the necessity for hotel or pub
lie house 81 certain place carries
with it the right to have license to
sell liquor.
The necessity for certain amount
of hotel accommodation at several
points in this county goes without
saying, and therefore. according TO
Judge Hazen's ruling, certain num-
Der of liq1or licenses follow Of right,
though the act of '87 also says that
the Court shall refuse the application
for liquor license when, having due
reg ard for the number and character of
the petitioners for and against such
application" it is the opinion Of
the Court that such license. Is not
nece ssary. AS far as we can see the
law leaves the matter to the personal
sentiment and opinion of the
Judge. If the sentiment of the COM
muuity is taken into account every
application from Butler will be refus-
ed, every one from Ssxonburg will
be granted, and in the oil towns with
their semi-foreign populations. the
matter will be divided.
The criminal business of the late
term was not finished urtil Friday of
last week, at 10 A M..when the license
applications were taken up, and it
was soon seen that the License
Court this year, was to be re-hash
of that of DrecaedinQ years
The applications were presented,
the applicant examined as to bis
house and the necessity for public
house at that point, and cross-exam-
ined as TO his record. His bondsmen
were questioned as to their property,
and his certi6ers as to the necessity
of public house at that place. 1t
was noticed that some of the bonds
men and certifers would not say that
license to sell liquor was necessary.
For the Iemonstrauts and against
the applications, numbers OF citizens
were called who testified that they
did not believe a liquor license was
necessary at the point in question or
any other point, and the remonstrsn-
ces presented in the Butler cases
showed that the sentiment here
strongly preponderates against the
granting of any liquor licenses.
The general run of the evidence in
the cases is not worth publishing but
there are come items worthy Of note.
For instance it appeared from the
evidence that most of the licensed no.
tel men have been selling liquor in
bottles, and this Judge Hazen said be
considered violation of the spirit OF
the Act Of Assembly.
In the Petrolis cases, the three old
ladies who secured the signatures to
the remonstrances were qualified to
the genuine0ess of the whole instead
of each one being qualified to the
particular names she had secured.
This came out and Judge Hazsn said
something about turning the ladies
over to the Grand Jury, and remark
cd upon the criticism he had been sub.
jected to by the ladies year ago,
but the actual genuineness of the
names was not called in question. Ia
! these cases also the Hon. A. l..
Campbell and one or two other prom
inent citizens Of the town testified as
TO the fearful state of society 10 the
place, Mr.. Campbell saying that they
now have the worst state of society
there they ever had, and that he
believed a licensed bouse would do
good because it would drive the low
dives out of the town. We have
questioned other citizens of the place
regarding this and ere told that sev-
eral persons there. including some
abandoned women, have been selling
liquor there right along, facts known
to everybody and not interfered with
by the officers of the law, aud that it
would not be safe for any citizen Of
the place to interfere.
The people of Petrolia, as general
thing are not natives Of the county,
They came in with the oil excitement
ten or twelve years ago. and accord
ing to this evidence they have estab-
| ii5hou Soiuuiuhiby IbCic th0b cuuoio
in wickedness any Sodom or Gomor-
rah that ever existed, and you may
kill the devil by giving him strong
drink, but q better way would be to
drown him in it and then set the Ii.
quor on fire. Rouse yourselves, ye
Christians of Petrolia.
.Ho, reapers of life's harvest,
| Why stand ye idly by?"
Another thing worth noting is the
bar business done by the hotels in
Butler. Mr.. Eitenmiller testified
that the receipts of bis bar averaged
| $40 a day, Mr. Lowry that his aver
aged $35 day, and Mr. Campbell
that his averaged was from $50 to
$50 day $50 day for 80 days
means Sl5. 500 year, and as there
are four bars iu town, some W here
near $50 900 changed hands over them
in Butler during the past year.
Another item was that the bar
keepers "black iat" of Butler and
vicinity now contains the names oi
l25 parsons.
The evidence in the cases was all in
by Tuesday evening. Wednesday
morning was occupied in making ar.
guments on the law and on the facts
| x,r.o.,f..d iu tha diHarant naoao