The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-07-24
WET GOODS SEIZED.
''Gooda Coda" Beer
Taken by Police
of Clinton.
THE WAGON HAS ALONG STRING.
Town Fathers VIII Not Be
Fooled by the Water
Commissioners.
THE WAGON HAS ALONG STRING.

| CLINTON, July 23.-Chief Bates men
raided the shanty bosses this morning,
made two arrests and conflscated three
stocks of beer, amounting to Is kegs
and several hundred bottles, not count
ing empties.
There is weeping, wailing and gnash-
ing of teeth on the surface of the Wa
chusett reservoir, for the Sunday is dry.
That is, it has been dry since little
after o'clock this morning.
The men who were arrested are Peter
Pedro and Charles Roma. They were
Immediately released on bonds fur
ntshd by Antonio Carboni. Carboni is
fruit dealer. He Is the patron saint
of the Italians who are building the
reservoir.
Roma's shanty is located on Carboni's
land.
A third man win be arrested as soon
as the police can determine who they
want. 1t is question of ownership.
The plum is between Gene Frank and
S. R. Romano. Frank has served three
months in the house of correction for a
violation of the liquor law. The shanty
Of disputed ownership is known among
the laborers as Gene Franks shanty,
but Romano is said to be the real pro-
prietur
Chief Bates planned the raid early in
the week. He determined some days
since that the shanty bosses must cease
selling beer without a license. III COM
mon with the selectmen he has deter
mined that the sale must stop, both in
obedience to the law, and because the
whole evil system of comnlissaries in
stituted by the contractors ard the
padrones is supported IN no small part
by the Illegal sale of beer at exorbitant
prices.
The continued agitation of The Spy
against the commiSsary has been ush-
full, because it has brought the evil to
the attention of the authorities in O
more vivid way than It would other
wise have been presented to them.
At any rate the plars of the police
failed in no particular. Last night the
men who were to participate in the
seizures were ordered to be on hand be-
fore o'clock this morning. While the
early church bells were ringing, three
carriages were made ready in Howard s
Bros. livery stable. Each carriage was
driven directly to a place mapped out
in advance by the chief.
One carriage went to Peter Pedros
shanty on the Cunningham road
Early churchgoers thought the men
We're out for little pleasuring. The
carriage was followed by a wagon
driven by Officer Michael F. Smith.
Pedro's shanty is on the Cunningham
road, so called. 1t is convenient to the
stripping contract, which has been
given to Moulton & O'Mahony. The
shanty is a pine shell about 100 feet long
and 40 feet wide. The rear affords a
sleeping place for a hundred laborers.
The front contains the commissary with
&C. T,.f,ao ,f aha ri
spaghettini, beans, sausage and fitch"
The carriage containing the advance
guard reached the shanty without at
tracing much attention. The first thing
that greeted the eyes of the police was
sugar barrel filled with cracked ice
A hundred bottles of beer were packed
in tne barrel. The beer was cooled to
exactly the right temperature, and the
laborers who had clustered around the
commissary were little inclined to re-
sent the confiscation, but their habitual
awe of policeman triumphed, and they
contented themselves with few sullen
mutterings.
The stuff in the barrel was merely for
immediate use. The reservoir from
which it had been drawn was found
after some search under the floor Of
the commissary. A sort of natural re-
frigerator had been made by digging a
built within the pit, and nine kegs of
beer reposed on the scaffoldings.
The police hoisted the stuff from the
depths and into the wagon. officer
Smith had IN the meantime arrived.
Officer Smith had such a load on his
wagon when the bottled stuff and the
kegs were loaded, that he made no eff
fort to take away a half dozen or
more empty kegs that lay about the
place
Pedro was arrested, loaded with the
beer and taken to the police station.
He took things coolly, only exclaiming
with an Italian shrug: "Coola beer
same as tea and coffee"
The shanty is surrounded by 40 lit
tie shacks, in which the laborers were
engaged in various occupations. Some
We're cooking beans that cost almost
as much as mushrooms. Others We're
frying salt pork for which they We're
required to pay nearly the price of sir
loin. But none was so interested in his
expensive food that he failed to come
out of his shack to regretfully see the
'gooda, coola beer carried away.
Pedro's shanty gave the biggest re-
suits. The party that raided it consist
ed of Walter Burke, Edward R. Clarke
and Robert Crothers besides Officer
Smith. This was Crothers' first service
1S a POllCClnclA.
Charles Roma's shanty is a little off
the beaten track. 1t is on the apex of
Burdett Hill, on Antonio Carboni's
land. 1t is a bunk house and a COM
missary combined, like all the other
shanties. Roma was visited by Officer
William Earle, William Johnson and
James Freel The police found one
keg of beer. behind the counter and As
bottles containing beer. If there was
more in the neighborhood, they couldn't
cause he had only few boarders. Thir-
ty-three, the police say. The only ex-
element was a diversion created by
Antonio Carboni, who attempted to ex-
postulate with the officers. He carried
his interference to a point where officer
Freel said you keep out of this, or
Wen take you down, too"
Roma was placed under arrest and
the beer loaded into the wagon, which
was driven by officer Earle. Roma
was taken to the police station, while
Earle drove to Franks shanty This
is on the road to st. Johns cemetery.
The shanty holds only IL roomers. The
stock Of beer it contained was entirely
disproportionate to the number Of men
supposed to consume 1t. The officers
discovered five kegs and SO bottles. as
well as some empty bottles and empty
cases. Forty-eight Of the bottles were
on ice, and well cooled for drinking
There was no owner in sight, and the
police left without a prisoner
The police think that the owners OF
this shanty must have been selling IN