The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-02-04
BRrpGNpoRr LToUOR oAsEs.

I
 Thrasher--ETrOneous Reports Corrected l An Effort to Secure the Observance O
 the Law.
 1 Secretary Thrasher was seen yester- day in reference to the reported com pact between the Law and Order league
 and the Liquor Dealers association of | Bridgeport. He said that he regretted that the matter had gotten into the pa pers, as the cases had not been settled and could not be without the approval of the court, but as certain statements
 had been published he saw no reason why he should not give the facts to the
 press.
 ''The situation, said he, lis this; 1 Some months ago the Bridgeport Law | and Order league applied to me to make thorough investigation in that city in
 reference to illegal liquor selling, gam | bling, houses of ill-fame, etc. We sent | our best men there and secured 8 mass l of evidence against the law-breakers, notably against the liquor dealers, for Sunday selling. We placed part of | the evidence in the hands of Prosecuting Agent Toomey and Prosecuting Attor- ney Klein. The cases against the gam blers and houses of ill-fame were not tried in the lower court; demurrers were entered, overruled, sentence imposed
 and appeals taken.
 Those cases are now pending in the
 court of common pleas, and we expect
 the trials will commence on Thursday
 of this week. When we came to the
 liquor cases the defense seemed deter
 mined to try out every case in the lower hn1at1 hn t1sia1c tyun T6pnlKG
 ago tomorrow morning; it was appar-
 ent then that both sides expected it
 would be fight to finish. The first
 case occupied most of the day. During
 the day a dispatch was received from
 one of the important witnesses that his
 wife was dying and he could not come,
 so an adjournment was granted by the court for two weeks. The matter rested
 for a few days, with no other expecta-
 tion on the part of the league than that
 the cases would be tried. About week
 ago I was requested to meet the counsel
 for the defense and a representative Of
 the Liquor Dealers association. The
 whole matter was gone over. stated
 the leagues position, to the effect that
 we had secured the evidence at great
 expense and proposed to make the best
 possible use of it to accomplish our ob-
 1ect, namely, the enforcement of law in Bridgeport It was acknowledged by the Liquor Dealers representative that
 they could not afford to take the risk of keeping open on Sunday and express ed themselves as being ready to comply with the law if We would show them some Ieniency in the cases already pend ing. I had no power to make a settle ment and plainly told them so. The cases were in court and could not be disposed of without the courts approv- al. I also told them that I should be willing to recommend any reasonable proposition, provided we could have as- surance from the persons under arrest and from the Liquor Dealers associa- ton, officially, that the law would be observed in the future and I suggested an arrangement which I thought possi- bly, might be agreed to by the prosecut- ing agent and the court, as well as by the defendants and by the league, which was that they should have their bonds all fixed at a sum equivalent to a req sonable fine and costs. l understood that some of the bonds were fixed at $75 and think that amount was sug- gested, the defendants to forfeit and pay such bonds when their cases were called; the individual dealers to sign an agreement that they would observe the law in the future or expect the full penalty in every case. The Liquor Deal- CTS association to sign an agreement that they would refrain from violations of the liuuor law and to use their intiu- ence to secure the observance of the same.
 In view of such payment, which in the aggregate should be something over two thousand dollars, and a satisfac- tory agreement, as before mentioned, we were not to bring any more prose cutions, and not to rearrest those who had forfeited their bonds, and not to press the calling of the license bonds, it being understood by both parties, should the agreement be accepted, that if the liquor laws were not obeyed to our entire satisfaction, we should pro- ceed with the cases now pending, as though the bonds had not been for feited and should bring arrests at will upon evidence already in hand and should press revocation cases, and the calling of the license bonds. It was definitely understood by both sides that this matter was to be laid before the court before anything could be done, Later written proposition addressed to me, embodying my suggestions, was prepared by the defendants counsel, for the signatures of the defendants, and another for. the officers of the asso- citation. They simply asked me to make the recommendations already mentioned and agreed to observe the law in the future.
 I laid the matter before the Bridge port Law and Order league, and Rev H. w. Pinkham, the secretary and myself, were authorized to act for the league and to make such arrangements with the prosecuting agent as in our judgment seemed best, We altered the written statement somewhat, had it drawn up ready for the signatures and left it with the counsel for the defense. The prosecuting agent was to make the to the court yesterday, and all know about the matter since then is what I have learned through the I received a dispatch last evening asking me to have the witnesses ready tomorrow morning, which would indicate that the arrangement has not been agreed to, although the papers say hoo h I,a