The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1903-04-09
THE DISGRACE AT MIDDLE
BURY.

Following closely on the heels of
the report that Middlebury opened
the first bar under the new Vermont
liquor law comes a story of drunken
debauchery in that town that rivals
the experience of Five Points in the
halcyon days of two decades ago, and
puts South Boston under the shade of
the sheltering palm. 1t appears that
on Saturday night tho toughs from all
the fair country about Middlebury
Joined forces with home talent con-
tingent Of the same class and together
they proceeded to exercise the sacred
rights of liberty granted them under
the new license law by getting in
gloriously drunk. In fact they got
fighting drunk, and broken noses. dis
located teeth and other fruits of a
drunken brawl were plucked from this
glorious tree of liberty. Driven from
the bar rooms the rioters continued
their celebration outside to such an
extent that few women ventured on
the streets and one who did fell over
a drunken man stretched across the
sidewalk. The village trustees held
an emergency meeting and voted to
increase the police force, and since
that time the justice courts have
been overrun with itnoxication. cases.
Surely this is not altogether a
promising beginning for the reign Of
license in Vermont but it is not alto
gether an unexpected one and perhaps
some of the good people of Middle
bury and the State at large, who
laughed at 10 seph Battell in his fran
tic efforts to save his town from sa-
looms, have ceased to think of him as
an irresponsible dreamer and now be-
lieve that he is prophet.
But this is not to the point, for it
is matter of the past and the pres
ent is of more concern. The truth OF
she Middlebury affair is that the
buns in that town and vicinity
merely exercised the liberty made pos
sible by the Legislature of 1902, and
the result only serves to emphasize
the truth that liberty in some hands
is dangerous thing.
1t will be recalled tha5 at the close
of the civil war which made the
emancipation proclamation possible,
the negroes of the south made their
new found freedom an excuse for as
Stunning to dominate those States by
an attempt to lord it over those who
were formerly their masters. In this
the negroes were upheld by the senti
ment of the north and even Congress
seemed willing that it should be so.
1t will also be remembered that il
was not until the outraged Angle
Saxon blood of the south arose in its
might and crushed the negroes and
their carpet bag friends in body and
spirit, that anything like decent con
dition of affairs prevailed.
IL is in similar condition to this
that Vermont, or at least Addison
county, finds herself today. The ele
ment that was rampant in Middlebury
on Saturday night has been freet
from the restrictions of prohibition
by the emancipation proclamation o.
the last Legislature, and as for the
encouraging attitude the negro saw
in the north-are not majority o.
Vermont voters in a relative posi-
ton?
Now the Vermont bum is doing JUS
what the negro did, abusing the free
dom that is given him, and similar
methods must be pursued in crushing
him. By this is not meant that {
white ROBBED Ku Klux organization
must ride over the State by night
striking terror to cowardly heart
that are prone to believe they are il
the ascendancy, but it does mean tina
public opionion clad in the whit
robes of common decency must NEE
such outrages as occurred in Middle
bury, and set the hand of authority s.
hard upon them that the lesson laugh
will not soon be forgotten, and If
carpet Dagger appears to encourag
these emancipated slaves of Vernon
for whatever of money or influence i
may bring him, let him be put at tn
bottom of the heap and his follower
piled upon him as fast as they revea
themselves.
1
The action of the negro did no
stamp Lincoln's immortal proclama
tion as failure, nor does the Middle
bury di ;grace condemn the new licen'
law, but it does emphasize the fac
that those who favored the law an
those who fought against it, mus
unite in impressing the tough elemer
of the State with the understandin
that Vermont must not be debauche
at any event.
END OF JACK THE RIPPEI
London, April 7.-George Chal
> man, the Southwark saloon keepC