News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1896-05-14


ages the business and gets the money-is
somewhere behind them, and is perhaps never
heard of. And again, a second real rumseler
Is not infrequently behind both, IN the person
of the land owner who gets an eXoTbitant
rent because of the nature of the traffic and
the risk he runs. Hotel keepers and drug
gists are also usually rumsellers and good
citizens to bOOt-and still the prohibitiOnists
howl away about the "rumseller" as II he
were mysterious monster whom civilized
people never saw. Some of the best men in
every community, in Vermont and all over
the world, are rumsellers. Burlington is in
this respect like other towns.
1t Is now In order for the Burlington Free
Press to retract its statements.
From the Rutland Herald for August To-,
1880.
A Letter From Gov. Woodbury..
estate of Vermont,
Executive Department,
Burlington,
August !, 1895.
"EditOr Of the Rutland Herdld.-
81 am much surprised at the editorial in
today's issue of your paper headed "Gov-
ernor Woodbury. as RumselIer." | have
owned the Van Ness house Tor IA years and
during that time there has been no intoxi-
eating quUr kept in or about it, nor have |
during that time been engaged directly or i'll
directly in the liquor traffic In the Van Ness
house or in any other place. If the guests of
the Van Ness house have persuaded any of
my employees to act as their agents to pro-
cure liquor for them such employees must
have obtained it outside of the Van Ness
house, and they acted upon their own re-
'sponsibility and at their own peril. You aC-
cuse me of owning tlgO rumhoes and run
ming one. You designate me as "Rumseller
Woodbury." and in other words accuse me of
being a common criminal. ! am willing to
endure in silence ordinary newspaper Crit-
cisms, but my personal self-respect and my
respect for the high office in which the good
people of the state of Vermont have placed
me, and my desire that the fair name of YER
mont should not be traduced and discredited
abroad, forbid my passing in silence the
highly libelOus article referred to. there
fore ask you to make complete and i'm
mediate retraction in your paper, failing in
which | shall adopt legal means to bring you
to account for your outrageous libel
"Gours very truly.
"URBAN A. WOODBURY."
The HERALD finds this letter rather puz-
zling. Gov. Woodbury. says that he is not
rumseller and demands Il retractiOn of the
HERALD'S statement that he was, and at the
same time speaks of rumseing by his SER
wants as if he would not deny the truth of
the charge that they were guilty. The HER
AID never charged anything but selling by
servants. 1t offered proof in certain cases,
and charged that the Oilenses had been long
continued. Now, if Gov. Woodbury. will
admit the truth Of this-if he will admit that
his servants have sold liquor as the HERALD
says they did-there is nothing left to dispute
about His letter goes to show that he Is
ready to admit that, or, at any rate, that he
will not undertake to deny it. A local article
from the Burlington News. printed else
where, which is likely enough TO have had
the governors sanction, speaks in the same
way.
Assuming that the selling by servants is
admitted, how does the case stand? Here is
the Vermont statute covering the point:-
'1f person by himself, clerk, servant or
agent, sells, furnishes or gives away, or
furnish or give away, intoxicating liquor or
cider, in violation of law, he shall forfeit for
each otiense to the state, upon the first con-
victiOn not less than five nor more than
one hundred dollars, and may also be i'm
prisoned, in the discretion of the court, not
more than thirty days; upon the second and
each subsequent conviction, not less than ten
nor more than two hundred dollars for each
otiense, and shall also be imprisoned not less
than one month nor more than one year."
Now, this statute is simply tremendous in
its terms. 1t was intended to reach precisely
such cases as we have under consideration,
and under 1t men have been convicted and
punished for selling liquor when they were
in intent and act as innocent as unborn
babies. 1t is not necessary for a man to
know that his servant makes the sale or to
direct or approve the selling. The sale itself
ends the wOrsted. OF course the servant acts
at his peril and may be punished, but so the
master may also be punished. If the SER
want, acting as servant, sells rum, both SER
want and master are rumsellers under the
law.
OF course tits easy to imagine cases in which
a servant at the Van Ness house sold liquor
without putting any moral responsibility up
on the landlord, and perhaps without creating
any legal responsibility in that direction.
But the cases charged by the HERALD are
different. We charged. and proved in detail,
that servants in the ordinary performance of
their work furnished rum to guests without
demur, and that repeatedly. When a guest
in hotel rings his bell he summons the land
lord. The landlord answers in the regular
way, by boy, and the boy takes and fills an
order for liquor. Taking an filling orders in
that way is part of the regular duty of hotel
servants all over the world, and he would be
queer lawyer who said that the landlord
was not responsible for the regular, ordinary
action of a servant in such case, even II
there were no special statute concerning 1t.
And the same thing is true with regard to
liquor served at the tables-the servants
represent the hOuse-the landlord. The
Van Ness house has had bottles of liquor
opened In the dining room and served to
guests as openly as tea and coffee are served,
and that great many times.
Gov. Woodbury. says that liquor sold must
have been obtained out of the house. Unless
he had wine press and q distieTy and
brewery on the premises that must he true.
But II makes not the smallest difference
whether the liquor is brought in by the ounce
or hOgshUad.
Gov. WOodbury's letter sounds as II he
thought we had charged him with pei sonaly
buying and selling and handling liquor. We
never intended to intimate anything OF the
sort. We charged that his servants had
furnished liquor to guests in their rooms and
on the public tables and that not once or
twice but continually and year after year.
If Gov. Woodbury. will admit the truth of
that. as his letter indicates he may, we have
nothing more to say.
As to retraction, the HERALD made its
statements upon what seemed indisputabe
evidence, but 1t Is ready to cheerfully and
promptly retract anything II said the moment
Gov. Woodbury. or anybody else shows us
that 1t Is untrue. Without new light, how
ever, we can find nothing TO retract. As TO
the general statement the HERALD might as
And word further: The HERALD has
no fight with Gov Woodbury. except as 1t
maybe forced to fight in self.defense. II has
charged him with no wrongdoing in saying
that he sold liquor; such selling is only
made an otfense by on outrageous law, and
II Is the law and not the governor that the
HERALD attacks. The governor indicates n
cOmmendable sOllcitude for the good name
of the state. The HERALD joins him heartily.
But II Is well to remember that 1t Is not what
the HERALD says nor what Gov. Woodbury.
says nor what any newspaper or men say
that tell the story. 1t Is what Gov. Wood
bury and other men do Some men-many
Of them perfectly well meaning and sincere
got the prohlbtory law on the statutes,
and others have kept II there and upheld 1t.
Nothing has injured the state so much. II Is
hard for people living here TO understand
how much. The thing in It's operation Is
rotten from top to bottom and a frightful
breeder Of rottenness. Because of Il
we now have the spectacle OF one prominent
citizen of the state who conducted n perfectly
proper business in an entirely unobectlon-
able way confined In prison, and another
who happens TO be also our governOr-in a
false position.
But Gov. Woodbury. may rest assured that
II he chooses to sue the HERALD for libel
this paper will take the proceeding In per-
fecty good part and do its best TO bring
TO light the exact truth-tO maintain all
II has said and likely enough a few bits
more. And the trial Of such a suit could
hardly fail to be of value TO the public from
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