Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1906-08-03
TEMPERANCE NOTES.

SUIT has been brought against G..
ID. Gillespie, a saloonkeeper at Brook
lyn Heights, West Virginia, for $780,
600 damages for the death of A. j.
Pennington, who was killed by a
train while intoxicated. Gillespie
sold the dead man the liquor.
New York spends $1,OOO,OOO a
day for drink. New York's annual
llquer bill is $685., 100000. This is:
More than the income from the
tariff,
Four times the annual gold out
put;
Six time the yearly silver product;
One-third the value of all coal
mined in a year.
In some sections of New York
there is one saloon to every thirty
families. The money spent there in
ten years for liquor would buy every
workiug-man a home in the suburbs.
New York's annual drink bill
would buy: 100000 barrels of
flour, or 100000 wagon loads of
wheat.
1t would take fifty persons year
to count the money in 81 notes.
The money would cover 10000
acres of ground.
A MENACE TO THE COMMUNITY.
Richmond Times Dispatch)
The following special from Dan.
vile was printed in the Times Dis
patch:
"In the Mayors Court j. II. Clark,
the president, and J. 9. Cole, the
secretary and treasurer of the Eu-
reka Social Club, were each fined
$75 and costs aud sentenced to terms
of thirty days in Jail on the charge
of selling liquor without license.
The Eureka Club is alleged 20 be a
branch of the club by that name in
Richmond, Va, and it is charged that
the quarters here have been operated
by Clark and Cole purely for the pur-
pose of selling intoxicants after the
licensed bar-rooms are closed.
ats membership is said to be
about 500, and during the examina-
ton of witnesses today, it developed
that many of the witnesses paid
their initiation fee with money fur
nished them indirectly by the ac-
cused."
These so-called social clubs are
the very worst forms of the saloon
evil, and are disgrace aud a menace.
They are operated in Richmond, as
the Danville item indicates, and they
must be put out Of commission. A
d stipguished citizen of Richmond,
who is engaged largely in charity
work, has made Investigations on his
own account, and has succeeded in
getting evidence from several men
who are in the habit of visiting the
clubs. The testimony of these men
is that the clubs which they visit
are nothing more than drinking
saloons and gambling dens; that they
are owned by few individuals, and
that the membership is farce; that
no membership fees are actually re-
quired, any man having the price of
a drink being allowed to enroll his
name as member, that they keep
open every day aud night in the
week, and that their best attendance
is between Saturday night and Mon
day morning.
SALOON RESPONSIBILITY.
In Chicago, few days ago, a no.
table case was tried in one of the city
courts before Judge Tuthill and a
Jury, the plaintiffs being the five
children Of John Hedlund and the
| defendants three salooon- keepers
1t was shown by the evi.
dence that Hedlund, five years
ago, was mechanic in prosperous
circumstances, with an income oi
! $1,000 year and that his family
were comfortably provided for
Then he began to drink. He be-
came a regular customer of the ga
BOOKKEEPING trio. His earnings
went over their bars instead of int
his business and for the mainten
ance of his home. Step by step b,
went downward, for the path of tn,
drinker is slope of every. increasing
steepness. 1t was repetition of tn,
familiar story of the drunkard',
progress. Business deserted him
his home became a scene of povert,
and suffering; his health failed; hi,
friends forsook him. At last tn,
ruin was complete. The saloon ha,
done its work; it's victim was
worthless sot; his home a wreck, an,
, his neglected children left to tn