The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1891-07-08
A Great Rum Raid.

vest of receipts from sales and a big uuan-
tity of liquor had been secured beforehand.
| IL was a surprise to them and to many
others when Sheriff Howe of Northfeld and
a large corps of deputies began, early Fri
! day evening, to make raids, which did not
cease until the Fourth was well over, and
| all the liquor of which the officers had any
! knowledge had been seized. The effect of
| these seizures was instantaneous and strik-
! ing. Very little liquor was sold on Friday
| evening and Saturday, and there were but
two arrests for drunkenness on Saturday,
| with some 1000 transients in town, against
! a dozen on Memorial day, with about the
customary number of people-transent and
resident. The officers were divided into
! squads, which, on Friday evening, visited
the saloons of William Miller John f.
Evans, Bernard A. McKenna and George
H. Wade. AT Miller's place Deputy-sheriff
| Camp OF Barre discovered the secret room
! in which the liquors of the place were
stored, and which has long baffled the Off
GERS who have raided the saloon. In cor
ner of one of the rear rooms was a closetSn
| which hung innocently lot of old clothes.
! Ofhcer Camp was bent on doing thorough
| job, and he looked the closet through pretty
| carefully. Discovering the points of some
| nails projecting through the rear wall of the
! closet, his suspicious were aroused. How
could those nails be there if there was not
vacant space back of the closet? He de-
manded that the thing be shown up, and
| Miller accordingly pulled string very re-
| luctantly, and the whole closet swung out
| like door, revealing a room some six or
| eight feet square, in which were numerous
! kegs, bottles, etc, filed with various kinds
of liquors. The stuff was at once piled into
| wagons and taken to the cellar of the court
! house. Seven loads of liquor were taken
from this saloon. These were made up of
JOG bottles of beer, and large quantity of
! hard liquor Miller claims that the value
| OF what was taken was about 500. At Nc
Kenna's quart of whiskey and eleven
| bottles of lager were found. Two raids
were made within an hour at McKen-
mas saloon, and something was found
each time. From Evans place two loads
of all varieties of hard and soft liquors
! were taken. Two barrels of cider and quan-
| titles of whskey and gin were seized at
| Wade's. The seizures We're continued
| through the Fourth, and a sensation was
caused by the news that large quantity
| OF hquor had been taken from the refriger-
ator of the Montpelier q Wells River rail
road freight depot. Here were found the
| following liquors: Forty-seven cases of
| beer, with no mark; twenty-seven large kegs
of lager beer, addressed to "G. w. Drew"
two large kegs of lager addressed to
Rueter Il CO.." twelve small kegs of lager,
addressed to the " Woodsville Bottling Com
pany;" one barrel of whislley addressed to
"W. p. & CO.." one and one-half barrels
of whiskey, addressed to II. Davis" one
can of whiskey addressed to the last.naned
.
Exchange hotel four bottles of gin and
twelve bottles of other liquors We're found
and at the drug. store of l.. II. Greene a case
OF ale and some porter were found Some
OF the beer taken has been poured into the
river, while about S22J worth of the hard
liquors has been appropriated by the town
agency The total value of these seizures
is hard to estimate, but careful computa-
ton puts it at about 81, 800. OF course the
cases arising out of the seizures will be
] Nm =
Smile was pretty well occupied all day long
in going through the preliminary formali-
lies. John e. Evans, keeping a nuisance,
pleaded guilty., was fined 5000 and ap-
pealed, j. H. Senter becoming surety;
keeping liquor with intent to sell, pleaded
guilty, was fined $780, and appealed, j. II.
Senter, surety. George L. Wade, keeping
nuisance, pleaded guilty, was fined 5000,
appealed, George w. Wing becoming
surety; keeping. with intent to SELL pleaded
w. Wing, surety. William Miller, keeping
with intent to sell, pleaded guilty, was
fined 500 and appealed, George w. Wing
becoming surety; keeping a nuisance,
pleaded guilty, was fined 5000, and ap-
pealed, George w. Wing, surety, Bernard
a. Mckenra, keeping a nuisance, pleaded
guilty, was fined $500, and appealed, j. II.
Senter becoming surety; keeping with in-
tent to sell, pleaded guilty, was fined 500
and appealed, j. II. Senter, surety. The
cases against j. A. kelton and Albert Spar
row, for keeping nuisance and keeping
with intent to sell, were continued to Au-
gust 10. l.. III. Greene, keeping with intent
to sell, pleaded guilty, was fined 500, and
appealed, j. II. Senter becoming surety;
keeping nuisance, pleaded guilty was
fined 5000 and appealed, j. II. Senter,
surety.
DAsTARDLY OUTRAGEs.
About eleven o'clock ON Friday evening
band of some forty hoodlums mostly
boys, equipped with horns, paid their COM
piments to Hon. Joseph Poland ON School
street, and afterwards went to the residence
of Mr.. Joseph Fisher on Loomis street and
gave him serenade, the explosion of fire.
crackers at both places adding to the din of
the horns Later on, and at repeated inter-
walls till about three o'clock in the morning,
squads of roughs returned to the residences
of both of these citizens on missions of
more serious character. At Mr.. Poland's,
giant fire-crackers were placed in the front
porch and exploded shattering windows,
and throwing down and breaking pictures
in the adjoining parlor. One of these can
non crackers had apparently been placed
under an old-fashioned wood-seat chair,
which was blown into fragments by the
force of the explosion. Missiles of a similar
character were exploded on the lawn and
also on the back piazza, splintering the floor
and breaking the glass of the kitchen win
dows. At Mr.. Fishers, outrages of a SINH
cracker was placed inside the blind of one
of the parlor windows, shatterng the blind
and demolishing the window. Another was
exploded on the window-sil of the northerly
window, opening into the stting.room, COM
pletely wrecking the window and sending
the broken glass to the opposite side of the
house-some twenty-five or thirty feet.
Crackers were also exploded at the side en-
trance on East Liberty street. The rioters
were disturbed here by Mr.. E. ID. Hyde, the
near neghbor and son-in-law of Mr. Fisher
who seized a mammoth cracker that had
been placed against the front door and
threw it into the street. Mr.. Hydes inter-
ference saved Mr. Fisher from further an
noyance till about three o'clock in the morn
ing, when another explosion announced
that the ruffians had returned TO their work.
1t was at this time that the parlor window
was wrecked. Mrs. Smile the daughter of
Mr.. Fisher, was occupying the room directly
above the explosion, and her outcry brought
Mr.. Hyde again TO the scene, but the villains
were beyond reach. One of the assailants
earlier in the evening, Mr.. Hyde recognized
and fully identified. The premises both at
Mr. Poand's and Mr.. Fishers looked in the
morning, amid the debris of broken glass;
smashed furniture and wrecked windows
as if they had undergone veritabe bonn
bardment. What was the cause of this un-