New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1888-10-24
of mine. But Washburn lifted q
silencing finger, and looked ait the


S'Your well-known views will be re-
spectfully listened to some other day,
if you please, = said he politely, ssbnt
just now Ingersoll's story has the
floor" And I subsidized into silence.
In an evil hour the serpent en-
tered the paradise in the form of a
fellow who opened drinking hole in
a cellar at the Centre, and by every
low art enticed the Workingmen into
1T. AS they passed to their work in
the morning or back at noon and
night, one after another would drop
down these fatal steps.
In less than a month the little
town could no longer boast of quiet
evenings. At the Centre the streets
often rang with pfofane words, with
angry cries and noisy, discordant
song. Later in the night the SETTLE
ment on the hillside echoed with the
uproar which was bred in that
Wretched cellar and worked it's way
up toward those once quiet homes
as the hours wore on past midnight.
After many vain attempts, a case
was made out against the keeper of
the drinking hole; he was sent to
Jail, and the den was closed. But the
mischief was already done. Habits of
drinking had grown upon many ofthe
workingmen, and into the minds of
not a few bad crept the idea that far
more money could be made by liquor
selling than by day labor. The pro-
hibitory law was in force, and the
majority of the voters Of Sumner
were in his favor What of that?
The places where liquor could be had
on the Hillside and elsewhere soon
numbered more than a score, and the
men and women who kept them
laughed at the law when they didnot
swear at it.
SSelectmen, reform clubs. Good
Templars, temperance men of every
strips united in efforts to break up
this state of things, but to no pur-
pose. A few seizures of a few gallons
OF bad liquor, very few convictions
and fines, many failures to obtain
sufficient testimony before the court
this was all. The evil grew. Peo-
pie settled down to the conviction
that it was a hopeless case. Many
said change the laW'-some were for
stricter prohibition, some for a
stringent license law; others said
Better repeal all liquor laws, and fall
back on the Nuisance Act
"lngersoll felt keenly the change in
the little town. He had become ac-
quainted with many of the Irish,
whom he had employed upon his
place, where he was doing all sorts Of
work, and he felt great interest in
them and their fortunes, for you know
lnky' had always plenty of the milk
of human kindness. And he couldn't
bear to see these men and their wives
and children go to the bad SO fast. His
wife laid the trouble to heart even
more than he. He says it became a
nightmare to them; it was the drop
of NORWOOD that imbittered all
their pleasures. They had talked it
over and over till they were fairly
sick and tired of the subject, and at
last they imposed law Of total alb
stlnence from the whole topic, and
agreed that a fine should be paid by
any member Of the household who
broke the law.
'"The laughs caused by this arrange
ment We're a decided Improvement.
lngersoll says. on the tears and the
moodiness that such conversations
had been won't to cause in Mrs. Inger-
soil and in himself respectively.
"Matters had stood thus in Sum
ner for nearly two years. said he,
when one night my wife met me at
the door with the fine Ca fve-cent
piece in her outstretched palm, while
in the other hand she held the New
York Evening Post. / Laughed, and
asked who had been talking liquor
shops. "It is | who propose to talk
it now, Increase said she, with an
eager flush, but no smile on her face;
and she could hardly wait till got
into my slippers and my armchair
before she began to read to me an
account of the means taken by a
committee of citizens in certain
Swedish town to abate drunken
ness
sob, I remember the story" I in
terrupted Washburn. s.The plan
was to license certain men to sell
at such a price that their profit was
very small, while they were allowed
to make as much proftas they could
on the food and the holesome drinks
which they were also required to
furnish. Hence it was for their inter
est to encourage the purchase of
these latter articles, and to discour-
age tipping. At the same time
there was no chance for unlicensed
liquor-sellers, as they couldn It under
sell the Others"
Just about what Ingerson told
me. " said Washburn.
"But that couldn't be done in this
country I continued. ut would
be secuted as government monopo-
ly and interference and what not,
in spite of it's evident wisdom and
shreWdness .
= = T,,1+ L i I