The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1895-10-23

simple fat contradiction. Then it takes
column to defend the recent action of
States Attorney Stanton in getting Fish
Commissioners Titcomb and Warren In.
dicted for furnishing liquor to members Of
the prohibitory legislature. Why on earth
the proper action of an officer under the
law in perfectly proper and regular way
should be defended at all 1t is hard to under
stand-but prohibition brings many queer
things. We all know that rum Is
sold with perfect freedom in Montpelier,
always has been and seems likely to be-.
And this statement involves no suggestion
to the effect that traffic has been stopped or
checked or that any effort has been made
to stop or check It. And then II a
hotel furnishes liquor to delegates to con-
vention or anything of that sort until a
hundred men are comfortably full and a
dozen bowling drunk, the definition
fails again. The Waterman says
that no rum is sold in Montpelier, but it
really means that there are no clearly
defined cases of selling. Rum is dealt out
over bars and in all sorts of ways right and
left"
The Herald has made no suggestion
of "facts," notorious or otherwise, in
regard to liquor-sellng in Montpelier.
Its columns are now and then filled
with no Wing and wild ranting about
alleged open and notorious violations of
the prohibitory law in this city, but be-
tween wind and facts" there is a
world. wide difference. The WATCH
MAN has not defended States Attorney
Stanton for any official act. He needs
none. Apparently contemporary had
been indiscreet enough to take stock in
some of the Herdld'S reckless state
ments about affairs in this county, and
the WATCHMAN, as we have said, made
known the real facts to set the con-
temporary right.
With its accustomed bumptiousness,
the Herald misconstrues a simple state
ment of facts as "defense of a pub
lie official who is so strong in his integ-
rity that the idle winds of accusation
pass him by. What this official wants,
in order to prosecute an offender within
his jurisdiction, is not what "we all
know" about the sale of rum with
perfect" or restrained, freedom in
Montpelier or elsewhere, but what
somebody in particular knows about
some specific offense, and what he will
tell, or can be made to tell, under oath,
in court, before jury. Armed with
this knowledge, or with a reasonable
certainty that it is procurable, he will
as he has always done-prosecute any
offender of any rank or degree. And
this statement involves the suggestion
that the traffic has been stopped or
checked in Montpelier; that resolute,
consistent, and successful efforts have
been made to stop or check it. The
people in all this region will read the
Herald's counter declaration and won
der at its brazen mendacity. The
records of the police court, of Washing
ton county court, of the workhouse at
Rutland, of the streets of Montpelier,
of the change in the tenantry and uses
of many buildings, are all very much
in evidence on this point. No sane
man questions this. But the sanity
qualification excludes the Herald. To
the beclouded spot its reason would &C.
cupy, if it had that faculty, this evil
dence appeals in vain.
The Herald has found great comfort
in the WATCHMAN's declaration that
since 1891, every offense, fragrant or
otherwise, against the prohibitory law
in Washington county, that has been
defined with sufficient clearness to war
rant prosecution, has been faithfully
and impartially-and successfully
prosecuted. Judge Stanton has not
made himself ridiculous, or weakened
the moral effect of prosecution, by pro-
ceeding upon mere suspicion, or vague
and indefinite charges. Nor has he
resorted to the tactics of " Paul Pry"
or " Peeping Tom" Nor, on the other
hand, has he been stickler for absolute
I" clearness of definition " in any of.
fence; nor has he been any respecter
Of persons; nor is it claimed shat no
rum is sold in Montpelier" The claim
of the WATERMAN, and its statements
of the facts of the temperance situation
here, are we'll enough understood
admittedly reasonable and candid
people. But, as we have said, the Her.
aid is not in this class, and it is not the
purpose of this article to contest its
vsgaries. 1t is only proposed to ex-
hibit some of them to a wondering COM
munity. Space would be too limited,
and life too short, to expose all of them.
That One-Term Rule,