The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1897-10-08
WICKED NORRISTDNN. :
A Local Preacher Declares Against
Saloons, Hotels and Gamblers.

Bottles of Liquor, Claimed to have been
Sold Illegally at Hote's. Saloons. and
Drug Stores in Morristown. Exhibited in
the Pulpit of the Baptist Church-Last
sunday Evening by Rev S. y. Batten-
Says They viii go before the Grand Jury.
The announcement of a sermon on
1.-The Liquor Traffic in Morristown," by
the pastor, Rev. s. z. Batten, coupled
with an idea some time prevalent that
the Citizens League, of which Mr.. Bat
ten is president. had been gathering
evidence at the licensed bars of the city
served to draw large crowd of the cur
ious to the Baptist Church last Sunday
evening. And they were not disappoint-
ed.
Setting forth as a text the question,
ssWho is on the Lords Side r the pastor
spoke generally on the evils of the liquor
traffic. Coming to local traffic. he held
that the sin of Morristown, taking into
consideration its intellectual and spirit
ual advantageous, was " "blacker and
deeper than in any other community in
the State of New Jersey" Proceeding,
he quoted statement of Chief of Police
j. Frank Holloway that 66 per cent. of
all the business of the Morristown police
department is due to the liquor traffic,
and that if the traffic was abolished, the
expenses of the department would be
reduced two-thirds. Mr.. Batten stated
that there were thirty places in Morris
town, including saloons, hotels and
wholesale licenses where liquor could be
bought, one for about every four
hundred inhabitants. Moreover, in
many of them there was direct
and constant violation of the law.
Hotels and saloons in the city sold liquor
atillegal hours, to minors, and on Sunday; |
drug stores sold liquor in illegal quanti- |
ties to minors and on Sunday; adding,
and what is said here tonight we are
prepared to say before the Grand Jury
or in the court of law, with this one ex-
ceptiOn. have given no names, dates or
places tonight He then mentioned
particular instances of violation of IL (
cense laws. On one Sunday evening a
local bar room had been crowded, so
that the bartender had to call out,
Hurry up, give some one else chance. .
Several bottles of liquor recently pur-
chased by minors at illegal hours and in
the presence of witnesses at saloons, ho-
tells and drug stores in the city were ex-
4D4bCO DJ I'LL DdLlC1s O11C Ol L46 DOL
ties of whieAey shown, liz speaker said
had been n,archasad iss- slsss
same evening. = 1t is just Sucn evidence
as this that Grand Juries require ana
inst such evidence as that the Citizens
League proposes to bring to the Grand
Jury. If the Grand Jury is interested
in obtaining information, information
can be found on all sides and IT the
Grand Jury does its duty and weighs
this evidence, a number of the hotels
and saloons in Morristown will be IN
dicted and driven out of business.
Mr.. Batten said it had been suggested I
that the town could i'll afford the loss OF /
the license money which cut IN the
number of drinking places would entail, +
and burst forth in the exclamation
"Merciful heavens, has 1t come to thls;
is there a man in MorrlstoWn tnaJ can
entertain such g thought as that Tor one
moment; is it possible that we have gone
so far in the worship OF Mammon anu
Racchus and the other false Gods?' pro-
ceeding to declare that if the treasury of
the town would be SO crippled by taking
awav license money, he, for one, would
do all in his power to raise funds to re-
plete the city treasury, even to the taking
of collection in his church.
The speaker also affirmed that there
were places in town where hard cider
was sold almost openly. Men went
sober to unlicensed places and came
away intoxicated. After calling atten-
ton to the other sins which menace the
town, mentioning gambling and impur-
ity, he called up the question OF placing
responsibility for this frequent violation
of law, overhauling the police force as
being sseither hopelessly corrupt or hope
lessly incompetent" and declared that
he had even been informed that he must
20 higher to locate the cause
of the non enforcement of the law. Dis
examinations had been pointed out IN the
city charter which made location OF re-
sponsibility almost impossible, leading
the Jealous preacher to remark eff the
charter does not locate responsibility,
then let us have a new charter and have
it tomorrow" In his opinion g If the
word went out from the executive head
of the town that the excise laws were to
be enforced, they would be enforced
right away"
Mr.. Batten also attacked the society
club, where tie ..so-called respectable
might have their liquors in private
The entire sermon was interesting
and good food for the curious. De
velopments are also awaited witt
great interest