Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1906-04-11

While the Eastern Shore of Mary
land has been partial to local option
for long time, a few of the residents,
judging from tales told about them,
would he just ass weil sati fled with
different condition of affairs.
Ia discussing tine subject with re-
porter of Every Evening, man who
once lived in that part of the PENN
sula said he could recall many abuses
of the law, some of which were very
hard to get at and it appeared 90 hc
an impossibility 90 suppress some of
them. he told of am instance. many
years ago, whore there was the pro.
prictor OF "a temperance hOus' in one
of the towns. VINO was arrested ON tine
charge of so.lilg liquor, iu violation
of the law, convicted and sentenced Goo
% term of Imprisonment The public,
the reporters informant said, was uf
tine impression, lor some time, chat th,
order of the court WAS being complied
with, but III was afterward learned that
while tue aforesaid alleged offender
was numinally % prisoner, in reality
1 he had % great deal of liberty Tie Was
/ kept In iail all day. but after nlehtlall
/ was permitted to go TO hls place of
/ business, whore Boo looked after thc
/ place, taking an account Of the day
/ work and making plans for the follow
/ ing day. lle had an uuders.a anding
with the iailer whereby he was To- be
back at the prison boy o'clock, where
he was TO remain until nightfall on
the following day.
One night he did not return to the
Jail until about midnight, having inn
bibed little himself and not being
aware of the fact that time was fleet
ing rapidly. When he reached the
Jail he found the place locked up
tightly and everybody asleep. After
great deal of knocki on the Jail
door be aroused the sheriff, who hung
his head out of an upper window and
exclaimed:
"Who on ea'th is that, at this time
of nightY' He was evidently not used
) to dealing with people who kept late
3 hours.
"Why it's me, " shouted back the
man at the door.
'Nho's megn asked the sheriff.
"Don't you know mey' came back
! the voice at the door, Pm
"Ain't you in yet?' asked tn,
sheriff
Nope, =" returned the man at tn,
p door, who was pa tly waiting fol
! the sheriff TO cOndescend TO come down
+ stairs and let him IN.
"Well, look here, % said the sheriff
Il have told you, all the time, to be
in by 8 o'clock, and if you come bacl
, this late any more / won't let you in.
= Finally the sheriff came down anC
let him in, and after that he kept bet
- | ter hours
p 1t was learned, according to the re
porter's informant, that while thI
proprietor of the place was serving
:. time in Jail in this fashion he wa
conducting a speakeasy at his plac
of business, but in such a manner tina
y he was not detected for a long time
- In the basement of the place he ha'
a dark room. A person wanting drinl
I would enter this room, where he wouli
pull out a drawer, and, without sayinl
anything, would deposit a coin therein
and would push the drawer back.
y man on the opposite side of partition
who could not be seen by the man j
the dark, took the money out an
% measured out whiskey according to tn
quantity called for by the money de
I posted, the drawer was pushed bacI
and the man who paid for the drin
took it and left. Not a word wa
!, spoken by either party. This continue
for weeks before the authorities knee
what was going on, and it is suppose
;, that when the proprietor left the ia
. in the evenings be devoted the tim
he was out of prison to seeing that TIA
speakeasy was running all right an
looking after the financial end Of th
| business.