The Savannah morning news., 1901-09-21
RETURNED NO BILL
GRAND JURY REFUSED To INDICT
THE oGLETHORPE CLUB.
HEARD BUT ONE WITNESS.
EVIDENTLY GRAND JURORS DID
NOT NEED MUCH INFORMATION.

Members of the Club Had Been Sum
moned TO Tell What They Knew
of the Sale of Liquor on Sunday.
Indictment as Sent to the Jury
ROOm-CharRed the 0gIethOrpe
Club with Keeping Open n Tip
Men who Appeared ms Witnesses
Chafed at the Delay to Which
They Were Subjected.
The grand jury of the Superior Court
yesterday afternoon refused to return
an indictment against the Oglethorpe
Club, charging that social organization
with the offense of keeping open a tip
ping house on Sunday.
There may have been, and probably
was, a good deal of discussion among
the members of the grand jury as to
the merits of the indictment they were
asked to return, but they spent pre-
cious little time in the examination of
witnesses.
Mr.. H. Z. Wilson, attorney for the
Good Government League, had sum-
moned a number of members of the
club as witnesses against it, and these
gentlemen were all in attendance yes
terday. while the grand jury was in
session. They had been taken away
from their desks in order to appear as
witnesses at the hearing, and none of
them was in a particularly sweet and
amiable mood. The sweetness of their
tempers was not increased by the fact
that the hours dragged on and the
grand jury, involved in the considera-
ton of other cases, called no one of
the club members before it.
Among those in attendance, in re-
Spouse to subpoenas in the case against
the club. were Messrs. H. H. Bacon,
Horace Rivers. A. B. Hull,
George S. Haines, A. G..
Guerard, Jr., and others. Mr.. James
n. Hazlehurst, superintendent of the
club, was also in attendance as a wit
ness.
OF all of these, Mr.. Bacon was the
only witness called upon to testify be-
fore the grand jury. But little time
was consumed in his Interrogation. He
told the grand jurymen that he was
member of the club took his meals
there and was frequently in the build
ing through the week. He was in the
habit of taking a drink with his meals
whenever he wanted one. Mr.. Bacon
said that the club was not a tipping
house in any sense of the word but
social organization simply.
That seemed to be about all the
grand jurors wanted to know, for they
dismissed Mr.. Bacon and notified all
the other witnesses that their attend
ance was no longer necessary. Even
at this stage the impression was gen.
eral about the Court House that the
grand jury would refuse to return the
indictment and, when it came back into
court, with a return of mo bill' in
dorsed upon the cover, there was no
surprise either felt or expressed.
Some weeks ago members of the club
interviewed for the Morning News, ex-
pressed the opinion that the grand jury
would refuse to return an indictment
should an effort to secure one be made
This prophesy seems to be borne out
by the facts.
After the failure of the grand jury
to return the indictment, Mr.. Wilson
said he would not cease his efforts to
have one returned, either by this grand
jury or another, and that he was go
ing to keep on trying to stop the sale
of liquor in Savannah on Sunday, in
the clubs as we'll as anywhere else.
There were some other of the Law
and Order cases that were to have
been presented to the grand jury at it's
session yesterday, but these went over
until the next session, on account of
the pressure of other business. These
were against saloon men who have
been charged with selling drinks and
giving away sandwiches on Sunday,
and of this practice a test case has
been made. Those who have been in
dulging in it claim they are entirely
within the law. and that they have a
perfect right to serve drinks with
meals. They claim no one has a right
to say just what the extent of the meal
ordered by another shall be, and that
in the eye of the law the sandwich as
well answers the purpose as the most
elaborate course dinner that could be
devised and served.
Another session of the grand inquest
of the county will be held on Tuesday
afternoon, and then some other of the
Law and Order cases will be brought