Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1898-06-12
A DRIVE At ,,PHOI|.|EBUS
Story Told by a New York
Newspaper Man.
OPINION CONCERNING 1T
Some Saloon Men and All the Anti-Saioon
People Say There ia More Truth
Than Poetry In the Article.
... Others Denounce 1t.

An illustrated article which appeared
In last weeks edition of the New YORK
Voice, the national temperance organ
OF this country, edited by DR.. Funk. OF
New York City. was the topic Of ami
mated discussion at the Soldiers Home
and In the beer halls OF Phoebus yes.
terday. Remarkable to relate. how,
ever although the story deals entirely
with the liquor question: there is III.
vision OF opinion among saloon men
concerning the truthfulness of the
statements 1t contains. Indeed, it is
at the request of a gentleman engaged
III the business that the extracts given
below are laid before the readers of the
Daily Press this morning. Those PEG
pie OF the town who regard the number
Of licenses granted there as not only
unnecessarily large. but detrimental tc
the business as we'll as the moral and
religious interests Of the place, say
that, while 1T grieves them to admit the
existence of the evils portrayed by the
correspondent of the Voice, they can
not deny that his statements in the
main are correct. There are, however
others who denounce them as the ma
iicious utterances of d temperance
crank
The writer In the Voice first turns
his attention to the Soldiers Home
where he went for the purpose OF pay
ing visit to the beer hall. There, he
says, he learned that the average quar-
terly receipts for beer are about s4I ,0Oo
and that the average daily consumption
Is about 48 barrels. There are times
however, when it reaches &C. and on
such occasions seven and a half barrels
are consumed every hour. He then de-
clares that beer is sold at the Home
by the bottle all day Sundays and 60
all applicants" In referring to Phoebus
he has this to say:
Adjoining the Home and surround
ed on one side by the Fortress Monroe
reservation and on the other by the
National Cemetery and the Hampton
Institute for colored and Indian boys,
is the town of Phoebus, a veritable
black hole. Although there are but L.
600 Inhabitants. there are 63 saloons
running in full blast, besides gambling
hells and brothels without number. So
foul is the town that people have their
mail addressed to Hampton or Fortres 8
Monroe to avoid admitting that they
live in Phoebus. Like a burglar at
night, the town changes its name fire.
quently to create a suspicion OF respect
ability. 1t has been called Mill City
and it has been known as Chesapeake
City. and 1t has had other aliases. It
is not even incorporated. These sa-
year for permission to exist. They pay
the State of Virginia slOv per year for
Its share Of the plumber and the coun-
ty another hundred for the same pur-
pose. making a total tax of 1925 for
each place, or grand total revenue OF
Sl4,175 year. Practically the whole
business Of these saloons comes from
the Soldiers Home and Fortress Mon
roe. both of which have temperance
l>ae ~ nob vr.It oH ora or a>ti ,a1 tn
keep soldiers out Of other saloons"
Then going back to the Home the
writer says:
AT quarterly time, bedlam
reigns for miles around In these IL
censed dives, as we'll as the temper
ance beer-halls. For three or four
days passes from the grounds are not
allowed. The object OF this Is to get
the old men TO spend their money In
the official grog-shop. They get their
drinks and then take their places again
at the foot OF the line. waiting their
turn for another glass By the time
the three days are up their appetite Is
intiamed for something stronger, and
they pour into these Phoebus saloons
in shoals. Drunkenness. rioting, fight
ing and gambling are the order Of the
day. One business man told me that
on such days there was a fight every
FIVE minutes He stated that frequent
ly he could stand at the door of his
place and see three or four fights go
ing on at once. AT night the old men
come tottering home, hatless. coatless.
with bloody noses. stab wounds and
broken limbs. Some fall into the creek
and drown. Others get lost and stay
out all night. Not long ago one old
beer-hall and tried to climb the for
hidden fence at night so as to get some
whiskey. The seat of his trousers
caught on one of the top palings and
he hung there all night. In the morn
ing he was found by some boys out
fishing. hanging there dead. A gold
watch and $45 of pension money were
found in his pockets.
AN average Of two old soldiers q day
die at the hospitals of this chamber of
horrors. 0
las I was approaching the grounds,
met an old veteran by the ways;de
alternately weeping and swearing. He
told me that he got drunk in the beer
half and got hungry for Whiskey He
climbed the forbidden fence cutting off
the grounds from the mainland, was
caught and discharged from the Home
the result Of getting drunk in the
temperance beer-hal!.'
II was told by a business man that
every saloon that he knew of in Phoe-
bus was bawdy house as we'll. To
verify this statement l visited II sa-
looms at random. Eut of the II saloons
visited 16 were conducted on this plan
and the seventeenth had gambling
room in the rear, and lewd women at
a convenient distance who were called
when wanted. Besides this. there We're
whole rows Of bawdy-houses on vari-
Gus streets. Both saloons and dives
were filled with old soldiers, drinking
gambling. swearing and fighting. At
one saloon an old veteran fell to the
floor drunk as I entered. gigantic
woman who acted as bartender drag
ged him into the rear room by the foot
as she would a dead dog. She swore
like pirate and chewed tobacco. Her
license authorizing her to conduct such
a business was hung over the bar.
During the weeks following the pay
ments Of pensions. the village lookup
is filled to Overlooking and wagon
Dads Of DRINKS are taken to the coun-
ty Jail at Hampton. Besides this, the
nightly crop of DRINKS harvested intt
the Home guard house averages 10 OF
20. AS high as 60 old soldiers have beer