Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1903-09-11

Lowell None None
Richford 9 |
st. Adams
Cambridge 9 None
Winooski 6 None
Burlington 9
Richmond |
On train at Montpelier Junc't
Mortified 3 None
This shows 100 under license against 16
under prohibition in nearly the same
towns, a little over wear ago. The
friends of the license law will tell you
that there is no more drunkenness under
license law than there was under pro-
hibition and they say what makes the
difference under the license law is
that the drunkards come right out
and show themselves, while under the
| prohibition the party who sold them
the liquor hid them away or stored
them away SO they could not be seen.
Now that assertion is enough to make
anyone laugh for who ever see a drunken
man that could be hid away? He is
bound to make himself conspicuous, he
is the smartest then he was ever in his
life and according to his opinion every
body is drunk but himself. 1t is impos-
sible to keep him out of sight or to keep
him quite, until he is dead drunk.
Such remarks as hiding away a
drunken man is assertion and not
backed by facts or experience Under
the present law these men who are
drunk enough to stagger about the street
are not generally arrested unless
they become boisterous and make dis
turbance. Under this new law the
illegal sellers have safe guard. | saw
man at Newport who was Jolly sort
of fellow, pretty drunk and as they
have no license there | asked him if he
could tell me where | could get
a drink. He looked at me, and
said he could but he guessed he
wouldn't, for by the fitting of my clothes
he didn't think l wanted any, but he
thought perhaps l might be a spotter,
but if | really wanted drink he would
get it for me if | would stay Just where
l was. He said that the beauty of this
law was that when fellow got drunk,
he wasn't obliged to tell where he got
it, and that protected his friend that
sold it to him. In towns where there
wasn't any license that helped out the
boys quite little, and in towns even
where they had license the people who
wanted to sell could do 50 with quite a
good deal of safety.
have been going up and down the
Mad River valley from Middlesex to
Watesfield for % years, four time a
year. | have never seen but one
drunken person in the valley until this
last July trip, and l run across nine on
this trip, five of them were dead drunk.
got about one mile and a half and
and come onto a team standing in the
middle of the road, no chance to pass
them on either side. | called out but
received no reply. | then got out of
drunk on the seat. They had two cof-
fin boxes in the back of the wagon,
looked around for screw driver, if
could have found one l should have put
both of them in the boxes. l led their
team out of the way, and l got up about
one half mile farther, | ran on to
another team in the same condition, at
this time there were three men lying on
the side of the road dead drunk, and
four bottles lay beside them empty.
had cup and threw water in each ones
face and they didn't move a muscle, so
lead that team out of the way and
just before l got in to Moretown 1 over
took two double teams with merchan.
disc, without drivers so l presume that
those men whom passed below some dis
lance belonged to those teams. These
people in Mad River valley got their
liquor at Middlesex where they have a
bottle license.
j. w. Boyce of Waterbury told me
: there had been more people locked up in
: Waterbury under the license law within
! the last four months than there had
been in the past six or eight years. The
2 lookup is the next building to his. The
justice of the peace of Ripton told me
5 that he had more DRINKS come before
him to be tried for drunkenness than he
had in eighteen months preceding under
| the prohibition law. As l said in the
2 previous letter towns with no license
= have the poor and drunk to take care OF
| Just the same as though they had a
r license.
: In st. Adams last Friday saw man
| stagger along the street and leading a
r little child about three years old, who
seemed badly neglected Coming past a
S fruit stand the little child wanted some
3; peanuts, he said she shouldn't have any
t The child commenced to cry; he slapped
a her hand and said he had no money and
D.; to stop her crying. He came along tC
S where there was bar and went in.
: had curiosity to see if they would give
him anything to drink in his drunken
condition. He staggered up to the bar
he called for whiskey, and asked another
man who sat there in about the sam,
s. condition to come up and have som,
It with him, and without a word from tn,
. bartender he handed them thei
whiskeys, and the one who called for the
/ whiskey had to tumble around to fine
>. money to pay for the whiskeys anc
n apparently took all he had, and thei
a staggered out The child got her pea
= nuts but her father didn't buy them 70
u her.
IS | do not believe that any town that ha
n "A license for three years. no matter wha
they get out of it, can show a cent prof
after paying all its costs and expenses tina
e goes with license, and the degradation
n disgrace and the sutferings that it make
is no money can buy.
% Yours respectfully, w. w. SwINEY.
Vergennes, VT, Aug. 81, 1908.
k GA STo TT a.
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