The Press., 1898-09-29

L. K. Dimmock has severed his con- nection with the elentric light company. Miss Florence B. Washburn has re- turned from visit with friends In Cherry Valley.
 | An oyster supper will be served by Lin coin Athletic Club each evening of the fair In Rockwell building. adjoining the clubs rooms.
 There Is possibility that suit will be brought against the borough because of the deaths of John Marsh and Ernest Banford. John L.. Hunter of Wlllimantic has been retained to prosecute the cases.
 The green committee of the Country Club have arranged the following events for members: Oct. 1, gentlemen's driv- ing contest, ladies' putting contest; Oct. 6, ladies' handicap; Oct. 15, gentlemen's putting contest, ladies' driving contest 1; Oct. 22, ladies' bogie match for cham ship of the club; Oct. go, gentlemen's bogie match for championship of the club. The adjourned annual meeting of the Stafford Library Association, held We'd nesday evening, elected the following directors: w. H. Smith, F. F. Patten, c. Allen, Chas. Warren, J. H. Reed, Miss Celia Holt, Mrs. E. O. Dennis, F. H. Baker, Alvarado Howard. The di- rectors will hold 0 meeting soon and elect the other officers. It was voted to con- tinue the library free to the people the coming year. Owing to the death of w. K. Baker, one of the trustees of the Arba Hyde fund, held for the ultimate benefit of the library, the association voted to ask the probate court at Boston to sp- point K. c. Pinney to the place made va cant by Mir. Bakers death. The receipts of the association for the past year, in- cluding $500 from the town of Stafford, were $710.60, and the payments were $965.83 As the association had $211. 33 on hand at the beginning of the year, the deficit for the year will be a trifie under fifty dollars. During the year 5A vol tunes and pamphlets have been added to the shelves-244 volumes by purchase, 62 volumes by gifts, and 21S volumes and pamphlets from the United States gov ernment. The whole number of books is now 9, ,7S9, and SIS pamphlets; $455. GA was expended in placing a new heater in the building, and $62 35 in additions to the shelving. Books purchased. and the care of the library cost nearly $350.
 LICENSE OR NO-LIoENsK.
 l EDITOR OF PRESS Stafford had three years of license, followed by three years of no-license, then a return to the license policy. The convictions by the courts of the borough for drunkenness for the H. cense year ending October 31, 1899, were 42; convictions for the license year end- ing October 31, 1898, 65; for the license year ending October 31, 1894, %; for the no-license year ending October 31, 1895, 16; for the nO-license year ending Octo- Der 31, 1896, 10; for the no-license year ending October 31, 1897, 10; for the first ten and five-sixths months of this license year, 45. Average for the license years about 45 average for the no-license years 12. The past year has been about an av- craze year in this respect. No one ex- II RCCto d AAW oSnAb6b 6u ONh bO OIAuICdJ6 the evil. The laws against murder and theft do not stop all killing or stealing. The purpose of such law Is to reduce the evil to a minimum. The law which makes the greatest reduction is the great est success. Judged by the court records, no-license reduces the drink evil to about one-quarter what 1t fs under license. The court records also show that various of- fences have been committed the past year for which liquor drinking was large ly responsible, although drunkenness was not charged in the complaint. One of these was . dastardly attempt at rape by an intoxicated man, who Is now serving out a term of six years in state prison
 But the court records do not show everything. Men who had been sober for three years have been on the streete drunk. Some of them have been fre- quently intoxicated. Young men and boys have been under constant tempta- ton, and many of them have yielded money which should have been used for the support of families has gone to the rum sellers, while again and again the selectmen have been called upon to helI such families; drunken men have beer common on our streets one man in drink fell from a window and was killed; anoth or man died in drink by the roadside, be- tween the borough and Stafford Hollow another man, who had been drinking, wal run over and killed while lying on the railroad track two men in the lookup for intoxication were killed by fire. Sev eral other deaths have occurred under circumstances which left little or no doubt iD the public mind that they were due te the same cause.
 Voters, isn't it about time that thie thing should stopp I do not charge tha in the production of pauperism, suffering crime and death, the legalized liquor traffic always makes as bad record as fl has done in our town the past year Everybody knows, however, that it's ten deDcy Is to produce such results. Th' saloon has borne It's natural fruit in Staf ford the past year. Its results are alwayl the same in kind, if not in amount. Fl, who votes for license invites these results I-he who fails to vote at all consents t. these results. Only the voter, who cast ballot against license, is freed from re sponsibility for whatever evil the salool entails. +. .s''T1' n
 Doubtless some men have voted for Il cense without realizing either the mora guilt involved In giving their sanction t. the saloon, or the practical evil whicE flows from ncense. The results of tn , past year ought to, and no doubt will lead many such men to vote against Il cense at the coming election. It wonl , seem that there ought to be no douh , about the result, unless over-confldenc