Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-03-26
EARLY ANTI-DRINK LAWS.
The Liquor Question in Other Days
Efforts to Combat Drunkenness.

From the New York Sun.
In this day of high license no license
and local option, with strong tendency
in the country TO prohibition. the liquor
question seems to be reaching some SOFT
OF crisis But it has always been a troa-
bIesome issue In lawmakers aud exect.-
tives from the dawn Of colonial govern
ment down. and each generation, al
thous.. 1t may learn something from the
last, has To begin the irrepressibe con
fiict over again. If the crisis is not ever
present. experience is always working
up to il.
In Connecticut a recent eXamina ton
of the records of more than 260 years
disCloses many CURIOUS developments In
legislation. There was-eveu time when
the privilege of selling liquor went beg
cling. In 1913 the general court had TO
pass an order that the towns upon the
river tConnecticuO select ''one sufficient
inhabitant to keep ordinary for pro-
visions and lodgings i'm some comfortable
manner, that passengers or strangers may
know where to resort" For each month
Of neglect town was to be fined forty
Shllings. At that period and later the
innkeeper could not sell above half a
pint Of wine to one person at one time"
could continue tiplng above the space
of half an hour" The state recognized
the necessary use Of houses of common
entertainment in every commonwealth
victuals.''
Drunkenness. or disorderly conduct. as
the law calls it in these euphemistic
times. was punished. but the Connecticut
lawmakers were careful to define it
a condition whereby the offender was
''bereaved or disabled in the use of his
understanding, appearing In his speech
or gestures" The American habit OF
treating can perhaps be traced to a law
of 1903 which required the customer to
drink on his feet. The act of that year
declared that no licensed innkeeper should
suffer any inhabitant to slit drinking
or tipling." For 115 years this was the
law in Connecticut. In the early part Of
the century there must have been more
drunkenness than was tolerable. for in
Ills the legislature limited sales of liquor
to travellers. No person dwelling In any
town shall be suffered to drink any rum
Tor other liquor in any tavern in that
town"
Four years afterward the legislature
had to take notice OF blind tigers" and
holes in the WALL The "spcakeasies''
Were not. however. known under the
names in modern use. About 1925 the
first law making retailing a misdemeanor
on the Lords day" was put on the stat
ute book. The first excise law was not
enacted until 1873. AS time went on in
temperance became so vexed question
that bills regulating the liquor traffic
were always before the general assembly.
Cards, dice and tables were not allowed
in inns by a law of 1874. and at the same
time minors, servants and negroes were
excluded as customers. curious statute
Of 1895 ''outlawed" a liquor bill in two
days What was called the Maine law
brings Connecticut legislation down to
1>:I4. No fee was required of innkeepers.
but liquor sold must be drunk the
premises, and in houses of entertainment
there must be two beds for guests and
stabling for four horses County COM
missioners might authorize 'all persons
To manufacture liquor. but they could
sell to town agents only. The town
AGENTS in turn M ht sell to others than
innkeepers, but only for sacramentai.
chemical and medicinal purposes, Their
books surviving show that most of the
male inhabitants needed a good deal q
liquor for such purposes.