Middletown transcript., 1907-10-05

prohibited. Squire Landlord. who deal
with the matter atPrincess Anne said tha
| prob ibition was an abomination.
ruins more boy he continued .sthar
anything else. Because they can't ge,
the liquor here openly and legally, they
all wantit. The very risk involved, leads
them to send for it. Then they hide
themselves in all sorts of dark places and
with the worst company to drink the
stuff They always empty the jug. There
is more drunkenness here now, than
there was when I was boy and We had
then 10 licensed places in this town.
81 had two of these walking 'barrooms'
arrested last Monday and sent up to Jes-
sups. They come right along, mostly
from Virginia, and locking them up
does't stop business. 1t cannot be stop
ped and therefore it ought to beIegalized
To penalize an act that can't be pro-
hibited is to throw contempt upon all
law. But, my chief objection to prohi-
bitionis that it makes sneaking drunk
ards Of the boys and young men,"
Squire Tilghman of Cris6eld took the
same view. Pointing to house, he de-.
clared: They sell whisky there, but l
can't prove it. People won't tell the
truth about this matter. 1t is almost use
less to arrest anybody for violating The
law. Witness after witness will deny
the most apparent facts.
"Much whisky comes here by boat from
Baltimore. Whisky dealers have agents
down here, who take orders just as they
do everywhere else on the Eastern Shore"
B. A. Bennett, clerk at the Peninsula
Hotel, said he would not sell whisky if
the place had a license. There were
too many rufians at Crisfield to make
the whisky business safe. He gave
happy illustration ofhis own lack of logic.
He said:
This is an honest place. If laid a
$40 bill on this table, it would be here TO-
morrow; but if l locked half pint of
whisky in that safe it would be gone be-
fore morning. Somebody would steal it. |
Nearly everybody drinks all he.cals BET.
There's a man over here on Balls
Island, who owns three boats add lie
serves the Peninsula from Crisfeid to
Cape Charles. He does not soliciaA He
takes orders. He comes to CrlHefd three
times week, and he sells good whisky,
He has first-class trade here and be is
not violating the law. No, | won't give
you his name, but if you want whisky
you can get it.
"Speakeasies? (? Yes, more than 2O1
but wouldn't touch one. But there is
good whisky in town, if you want it,
William R. Reese, editor and now dep
uty postmaster, at Cris6eld, ,approved
Of prohibition if the law were applied.
But it was only applied to the negroes,
Tor whom it was evidently INTENDED; and
white men break it with impuniy. Dur.
ing the iatc lynching affair, .IEliaakyS 49,
'old openly on this street. lose lync
,rs were all drunk with speakeal
whisky. The same stuff is sold ON til
Itreet nov, but not openly. There is
eading politician here who ran away last
Nay before the grand jury of that term
II court convened. He had sold whisky,
Ills friends saved him during his absence D
ind last week they put him on the county r
icket."
Mr.. Reese said that $500 was sent ont
II Crisfeld every week for intoxicants.
This recalls the fact that Pocomoke City
collects $2,760 every year from its six
licensed hotels.
Somerset, like most Of the Eastern
shore counties, is hardened with heavy
ak rate. Princess Anne is often spoken
# as the oldest town in the Peninsula,
md the records of Somerset county are
% years older than those of Delaware,
lating back to 1863; but its population is
'nly 26,000, or nearly 600 less than that
of Kent, and over 16, 900 less than Sussex,
is assessed valuation is about half of that
II Sussex. 1t ragged from S4,542, ,059 in
90l to $5.216,6k0 in 1906. The Kent
ndSussex asseseI en6 as stated before are
more than 2and 10 millions.
1ere are the tax rates side by side Of the
hree counties named: |