Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-13
Communicated
PROHIBITION FAILED.
WHY BEvERLY'S COUNCILaIEN DE.
CIDED TO GRANT LICENSES.
New Jersey Town That Has Beer
Dead TO the Waist TO be
Rejuveunted.

Prohibition has been a failure in the little
town of Beverly, n. j., as far as the general
advancement of the place is concerned, and
after four years experience with no liquor
sold in the town the residents have gone
back to the old way again, and at the last
meeting of their Council granted two retail
and one wholesale liquor licenses.
An old resident of the place said yester-
day: twenty-five years ago Beverly was a
growing little city, with good prospects
ahead of becoming a place of importance.
Since that time the temperance movement
sprang up, and the very people who have
been foremost in this movement have re-
tarded the growth of the town and driven
away its industries. During the past four
years, when prohibition has been in force,
the decadence has been very marked. Trade
has been driven away and building stopped.
Previous to that time there were frequently
as many as five or ten houses under way at
time, thing almost unknown since.
HAS DRIVEN THE FARMERS AWAY.
City Clerk William Shropshire, whose
official position renders him especially ia
miiiar with the condition of the town under
prohibition, says that the effect of closing
up the hotels has been decidedly against
the interests of the place. Eight years
ago" he said, in instancing this, "there
were SIX big grocery stores here, all of them
doing big business. The farmers would
come here from the country around, leave
their orders at the stores, and drop in at
the hotels to gossip and drink. They
didn't get drunk. The town used to be so
full of them that you couldn't find an emp
ty shed or hitching post, ali being occupied
by teams. Since prohibition has been in
force all these farmers have been driven to
Burlington or some other near town where
they could find proper accommodations.
The result was that three of the grocery
stores failed, and of the three that are left
one is hardly doing any business at all.
"Another effect has been the driving away
of numbers of people who formerly came
here during the summer. The Steamboat
House used to have from 150 to 200 boarders
every summer; but when the license was
taken away the house remained closed for
three years, and did very meager business
the remainder of the time"
The Steamboat House is one of the places
just granted q license, and has already 2S0
boarders engaged for the present summer.
Mr.. Shropshire also stated that travelling
men who have chanced to visit the town
while prohibition was in force have said
that they could not give a good account of
the town outside, and could not recommend
any of their fellow-travelers to any house In
Beverly as furnishing frst-class accommo-
dations. They would, therefore, naturally
60 to Burlington or other nearby towns.
EVIDENTLY HAD ENOUGH OF IT.
The population of Beverly is about 2, 800,
and at the election last fall G. D. Logan,
prohibition candidate for Assemblyman and
a resident of the town, only polled 35 votes
in the town limits, Mayor Roberts and most
of the city officials are pronounced temper
ance men, but are not believers in prohibi-
ton. The present City Council, of nine
members, comprises but three who are in
favor of no-license, they being DIR. A. W.
Taylor. G. D. Logan and M. w. Hamer.
At the meeting of the Council last week
licenses were granted to Edward Russ, pro-
prietor of the Russ House, at Five Points,
and Francis II. Bradley, of the Steamboat
House, the latter being also granted whole
sale license. The application of Mrs. Jeans
for a saloon and restaurant at Warren and
Laurel streets was refused, and the applica-
tion of Mrs. Kirschoff for her old hotel, the
Washington House, was laid over.