The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1893-04-12


Interpretation of this by-play was that
this arrangement was made to shield
the real proprietor and offender, and
that it was made with the understand
ing and on the condition that the prin-
cipal would recoup the subordinate for
his pecuniary sufferings. Time went
on, and, under stress of circumstances,
Mrs. Evans sold hoI Jehold furniture
aud such articles of other personal
property as she could part with to raise
money TO pay her husbands fine. She
Impoverished herself in her efforts to
raise the money to secure his release
when his thirty days of confinement
should expire. She succeeded in rails
lug about $500, and this sum repre-
scented the net result of the sale of her
meagre share of this worlds goods.
Meantime, Frank H. McGill and his
brother, Edward McGill, had been ar
rested on an information filed by the
states attorney for keeping nuisance
and for illegal traffic in liquor at the sa-
loon in "the old Omer Miller place."
Edward McGill, the younger brother,
pleaded guilty to the charge of keeping
nuisance and to keeping liquor with
INTENT to sell. Thus fortified, Frank H.
McGill-currently believed to be the
leading spirit in this business-appealed
to jury of his peers to vindicate him
from the assaults upon his immaculate
character. The story of the trial is told
in the report of court proceedings else
where in this issue. Twelve "good
men and true" have declared under
oath, after hearing the evidence, that
the WATCHMAN was right in stating
that Frank Fl. McGill was running"
the saloon in question.
The McGill cases, and others that APP
pear in the court records for the past
week, illustrate the demoralizing int1u-
ence of the liquor traffic upon character.
Beguiled into assuming the role of
proprietors, and, if arrested and con-
| NlCIeu, VI ouhSllhS OhO puhlohihOhto
attached to violations of the prohibitory
law, by assurances that their fines
should be paid and they should not be
allowed TO languish in confinement
Evans and Robinson, if their story is
true (and no one doubts iO were per-
suaded to abandon the paths of honest
industry and engage in a traffic forbid
den by the state. The pledges which,
they say, their principals made to in.
duce them to engage in rum-selling,
have not been fulfilled. They have not
only endured the specific periods of
Imprisonment to which they were SEN
fenced, but, without friends or property,
abandoned by their principals who had
reaped the illgotten rewards of an il
legal traffic, they are now serving out
the terms of confinement at hard labor
which the law prescribes as the alterna-
tive for failure to pay the fines i'm
posed. To somewhat shorten the period
of this alternative sentence, their fam
lilies have dispossessed themselves of
articles of their scanty store of personal
effects and paid to the state the
money accruing from the sale. I'm
PEELED by this breach of faith and viola
ton of honor, the victims have rent the
veil and disclosed to the law and pun
ishment the real offenders. And no one
can blame them.
McGil's suit against the WATCHMAN
marks significant and gratifying stage
of progress in the work of temperance
reform. 1t is evidence of the achieve
ment of great moral result. 1t is al
admission by one of the rum-vendine
class that the traffic is odious and tina
it is Justly held in reprobation by thu
community at large. This is what thu
WATCHMAN has always claimed, and i
is with pleasure that it presents from
its own experience indisputable evi
dence of the soundness of this view o
the unhallowed business. The wri
: served upon the WATCHMAN sets forth
with impressive and unlimited verbiage
: the awful enormity Of the offense in
volved in the few simple words EN-
ployed in stating what were the well
understood facts respecting the owner
ship of the saloon Gin the old One
Miller place" In contemplating tn
blot upon the escutcheon of McGill an
- the wreck of his worldly fortune
wrought by the imputation it had I'm
. Willingly published, the WATCHMAl
= deemed itself the chief of sinners
the agony with which learned counse
:. freighted their accusation were not al
together in the nature of stage thunder
This episode is highly important in tn
fact that ii shows that temperate
people and liquor-venders are at last i
: hearty accord as to the business of run
" selling. That the traffic is considere
. so vile, even by rumsellers themselves