The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1909-10-11
PUT LID ON TIGHT
MODERN viGILANTES IN NEW
JERSEY FRUIT BELT.
End of Rowdyism and Riotous Life
Came When Citizens "Got To-
gether" in Real Earnest
to Subdue Trouble.

There is little town up in the
New Jersey, that manages it's local af-
fairs in way that is worthy Of emula-
ton by large cities. Once the strong
hold of rowdyism and riotous life. its
streets are now as quiet and calm as
the middle of the Sahara desert on
Sunday afternoon. And it was all
brought about by few determined
citizens taking the law into their own
hands, while they let public opinion
or gossip, rather-go hang. This is
how it came about:
Being in the center of the fruit belt
which produces half-million baskets
OF peaches yearly, New Germantown
is visited by hordes of wanderers each
fall who come to gather the crop. For
jetsam of city slums and men of bro
ken fortune who seek the GOODNESS of
country life for few weeks. Almost
without exception they are hard drink
ers and make the night hideous with
their revels. Last fall conditions were
particularly bad. The peach pickers
tore the lid clear off and made the vii
lage tavern a center of operations
that caused the long suffering towns
people to stand aghast. There were
fights on front porches, doors kicked in
and good citizens roughly jostled on
the streets, while oaths and raucous
shouts resounded until early in the
morning
Now, this was all very we'll for a
time. 1t had been going on for years,
although not in so extreme a form,
and so the natives passed it up as
bad business that could not be bet
tered. Then another element appeared
which put new face on matters
Like any other community, New Ger
mantown contained several resident
| characters of bibulous tendencies who
Joined the visitors in their celebrations
and soon became the widest of ALL At
last the fruit was gone and the "ho-
boes," too, had drifted away.
Now" thought the citizens, peace
| will be with u.s." But not so. On the
first Saturday night the lid was showed
away out of sight, and the resident
characters did it all. They had set out
to keep up the pace set by their late
brethren, and they succeeded pretty
! we'll.
Thus matters stood for several
weeks, and, in spite of protests to the
constable, the disturbance constantly
grew worse. Then one morning things
came to head. A leading townsman
stepped out of his door and discov-
cred a recumbent form in the spot
where favorite potted plant should
have been. The townsman deposited
the inert one more or less carefully in
the gutter and set out to gather other
| prominent citizens together. They met
In store and in a very short time a
law and order club had been formed,
from which the mandate went forth
that the next man seen drunk would
be summarily and incontinently
"pinched"
They'll never do it," said the tip
piers; why, there amt no law, real
law, back of such bluff"
So one of them made test case
that very night by running amuck
down the main street. In just five min.
utes by the clock he was locked up in
a livery stable with law and order
man on guard. Next day local JUS
tice of the peace fined him heavily.
To-day the man who feels the need
of his liquor regularly in that section
takes bottle far away into the woods
and casts fearful glances over his
shoulder as he partakes of it.