The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1906-05-10
Cosset Lamb On Much Work To Raise Spc
LUNDERGAN RESTAURANT.
Action of the License Commissioners COndsm
ned By Correspondent


Mr. Editor: - II seems a pity indeed
il not common misfortune, to have
the public welfare sacrificed to po-
zeal expediency.
The action OF the license commits
.i.ters in BUSTING VIM. II. Lundergan
from business was most unfair and
seemingly reprehensible. Mr. Lumber.
gan was a man who had conducted a
I public bar under license for the past
three years without an iniraction of
the stringent provisions that hedge
about our high license lawa man
who had conducted for Is years a
public restaurant that stood at the
close at the highest degree of excellence
10 the matter of cuisine and fair and
courteous treatment and attendance
one who catered to nearly a hundred
guests day of the best class of citi
/ lens and transients one who had. in
deed, after years of struggle, establish
d an institution of public necessity
asd local pride.
The action of the commissioners in
hus destroying a public need was
simply to preserve to the Republican
larty an element whose franchise is
often capable of turning the result in
an election Of town and village officers.
The action of the commissioners was
taken, also in the face OF written
protest signed by .uch leading citizens
Us Il II, Putnam, Fred H. Morhous,
\. b, OItuan and large majority Of
the property holders within four hun
bred feet OF the location for hich a
/ license was granted t. erect common
bar in custer OF Mr. Londe,gan, whose
place was located in the business and
not heresidential section of the street
The action of the commissioners was
taken, furthermore, in spite of IN
writtea protest Of Chas Adams. ow.er
OF two adjoining residences; of the
personal protest at a pubic hearing
If Mr. Oa,maB, whose residence and
place OF business is located directly
opposite and across a narrow street;
whose family must sit in the rear OF the
louSe or look at any time during
period OF fifteen hours day directly
upon q public bar and the patrons
thereof ranged up and drinking 10
front of it; whose business must needs
suffer from close proximity to such an
Institution.
The action of the commissioners was
likewise against the personal evidence
II the pubic hearing of Mrs Wood
ward who, with her sister, Mrs
Slreeter, conduct a dressmaking es-
Enlistment next door to the newly
erected bar, and whose business must
necessarily be Injured, il not utterly
destroyed by the juXtaposition of such
an incongrusous institutions; and who
personally, by reason of their unpro.
tected condition must undergo constant
mental fear and torture through dread
Of the vistations of drunken men,
while the streets are entirely without
police patrol. They might, after being
established in the one place for more
than eighteen years, remove To another
quarter of the village, as was suggest
ed at the hearing. Itmay be argued
however, that when a neighbor erects
,ud maintains a nuisance it is usual
for the proper authorities to suppress
it. Indeed, it is quite unusual for pub
ic authority to establish nuisance
and require the agrieyed to move
away from it.
We are advid that the excuse of sr
10y the commissioners In eXtenuat-
ION OF their action was that Mr. Lunder.
, gan rested under complaint for viola
- zion of the law, in that he served beer
win sandwiches in his dining-rooms
on prohibited days MIR Lundergan
AYERS that such acts on his part were
y under the advice Of the commissio ners
themselves; that he never moved in a
doubtful way without soliciting such
advice; that he had always his right
to do business, as we'll as his license
I fee, at stake and constantly in mind
at every turn, and no man ever strug'
: gied with greater zeal than he to serve
che puplic well and in lawful way
At least one other dealer also rested
under complaint, but that did not bar
him from license
No, Mr. Editor, Il was not the public
good the commissioners sought t
serve in blottng out a business OF
great local necessity, but the conser
walton Of political expediency. This
condition did not obtain when we haC
by partizan board appointed 10y thu
selectmen.
A Citiyap