Waterbury Democrat., 1901-12-28
BEHIND THE AGE
Ex-Mayor Matthews in His Ad-
 vocacy of Early Closing.
WATERBURY IS GROWN UP.


 sary to Do Business Between Sun
 set and Sunrise-The ex-Mayor Made Close Waterbury Saloons One Hour
 Earlier at Night.
 Henry A. Matthews, one of Water bury's eX-mayors and now resident of Southbury, was about town to-day interviewing the aldermen regarding the advisability of closing saloons at II o'clock instead of at midnight. MT Matthews didn't wear his high hat, and consequently some of his old friends scarcely recognized him with the neat derby. which. although fully up to the style. is not half as becom- l ing to MT Matthews as the tall hat. 1 Time touches him with gentle hand and were it not for his snowy white l hair one would not think him over 90 ] years old. In his day and time Mir l Matthews was a prominent figure o2 l the streets of Waterbury and for years
 was q popular employer of labor at Matthews x Willard's. He is a demo- I crat in politics and held many posi-
 tions of honor, including the office of 1 mayor. representative and senator. I For these reasons many were glad to
 meet the old gentleman and he was l given q cordial greeting everywhere he called, though We are not aware that
 any alderman committed himself on
 the question Of the early closing of sa I loonS
 When Henry A. Matthews represent ed Waterbury ill the senate at Hart | 1.n i,,t1 1R;II a1-tt | obligatory on saloonkeepers to close
 their places of business at Il o'clock at night and labored zealously to se- I cure it's passage. In this he had the
 backing of the temperance advocates
 of the state and many others looked
 upon the measure with favor. But it
 had it's opponents and the opposition
 developed sufficient strength to amend I it so that the selectmen had the power l to allow the saloons to remain open Inntil midnight if they so desired. This practically knocked the bottom out of l the, bill, for the selectmen rarely ever l dared to run counter with the adyo- I cates of the opening of saloons until l 12 o'clock. so that the act did not l amount to much After January l. l 1902. this power will pass from the SC l lectmen to the aldermen, and Mir Mat ! thewS'S purpose ill calling upon the f city solons is to endeayor to induce them not to vote the additional hour. I and by this means see his pet scheme l in full force in Waterbury for the next two years. He declares that he is actuated by the best of motives and has no end ill view but the common good of all the people of this town. He believes now as he did when he intro I duced the bill into the senate that II o'clock is late enough for saloons to l be open, and that if this law were gen eral the liquor men and the public would profit thereby. People would be in bed earlier and all would soon Eappreciate the benefit of it financially l aud otherwise.
 While no one will question Mir Mat ] theWs's good intentions, still it is ex- 1 tremely doubtful if he will succeed in inducing a sufficient number of the al dermen to look at the matter from his standpoint to pass such q resolution
 as he desires. Things have changed
 considerably in Waterbury since Mr 1 Matthews was active in public life,
 and the saloons closed at II o'clock,
 most of them long before that hour.
 Tn those days Waterbury was small l PldCe AcOuIpdI0u WILL NudI IL IS IO-
 day. We had no trolley cars and the old lamps that shed weird light here 1 and there through the public streets l were extinguished at midnight. leav- 1 ing the whole place in utter darkness 1 and the sight of a man about town
 after that was something of q curios- 1 ity. Indeed, the only persons seen on l the streets after 12 o'clock at night during the days of tho gas and naptha lamps were q few casters helpers l going to or from their work. and oc- l casionally an excited individual grop- | ing around in search of q doctor. It I is quite different now and has been for some time past. No matter how late 1 one happens to be out. he sees people l hurrying to and fro, and it is but req l SOnable to suppose that they are not l about the streets for fun. We have I milkmen galore, casters. casters help l CTS, bakers. printers, large numbers of
 men who work until early morning in the factories and other places. mid night cafes and lunch carts in full blast until jolly daylight lWhew! We l must stop. Probably the best way to describe the kind of nights we have in Waterbury these days lis to say that itis hard to distinguish them from the days. And the trend of things is all in this direction. The idea, it sseems, is to keep business on the move con- tinuously. Probablysit is too bad that this should be so. but it looks as if the man who would try to stop the persistent march of the people of this {age in Waterbury as we'll as else ! where would find himself engaged in Ia frllitless effort, for the world is tray cling at q mad pace, perhaps we should have said gallop, and if Waterbury
 wants to keep up with the procession q it cannot afford to discard it's skates. Whether this is any reason why sa-
 looms should be open until 12 o'clock is something we leave for the readers of the Democrat to decide. We are
 aware that there are people who take
 the ground that they ought to be open | day and night. the same as i'll other progressive cities. while others would l consider if blessing if we had nc ! such places. But these are unreason Table fellows and the public can hardly
 afford to lose much time debating the
 question with them. Conservative citi sl zens are of the opinion that the liquor V traffic is conducted on fairly decen
 plan in Waterbury and make no bones oS stating that it would be wise to lei r-I