Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-08-11
aRenulation,, in Detroit.

THE other day we got letter from
: a Detroit mother. telling us that her
( Young daughter had come home late
lat night INTOXICATED
, questioned, the daughter told her
lmother that she had attended a dance
3 at Gies' Garden.
The mothers object in writing this
newspaper was to ask us if We
: couldn't do something about it.
"A Times reporter was sent to Giles
Garden last Saturday night. and what
he found there should cause every
man in Detroit to blush with shame
Let us quote you from the report
ers story.
1T will bear repetition,
II ought to be printed every dav
land shown to our authorities until
this place has been put out of bust
ness.
| Here il is:
THE PLACE WAS CROWDED
WITH YOUNG MEN AND GIRLS.
THE MAJORITY OF THE LATTER
BEING NOT MORE THAN Is
| YEARS OLD.
In the center of the gardens is the
dance hall. an open air affair. whore
young men and their lady loves have
ample room to trip the light fantastic.
About 80 feet from the dance hall is a
shack, in which is an abbreviated bar.
Adjoining the bar is a small, boxlke
room. containing four tables and a
number Of chairs 1t is impossible To
get into this room. without going
through the barroom.
There you have the setting for as
revolving a social drama big city
can produce. Gies' Garden is a moral
cancer and what The Times repre-
sentative saw there. Saturday night,
would jar the sensibilities of even a
woman far down the social scale.
HE SAW YOUNG GIRLS. IA, Ia
AND Is YEARS OLD. TROUP
THROUGH THE FOUL SMELLING
BARROOM. INTO THE ADJOINING
CAFE HE SAW THEM SEIZE
EAGERLY upon SCHUBERS OF
BEER SERVED THEM BY \
BLYTHE YOUNG BARTENDER. HE
SAW THEM DRINK HURRIEDLY
SO AS NOT TO MISS THE NEXT
DANCE.
HE SAW YOUNG MEN. MADE
BOLD BY LIQUOR, CLASP GIRLS
In MAD EMBRACE HE SAW ONE
FELLOW SEIZE THE HEM OF A
YOUNG WoMAN'S DRESS AND
PULL THE GARMENT ABOVE HER
KNEES.
"Modestry is left at home when one
goes to the garden. Liberty becomes
license An observer shudders when
he contemplates the future of these
girls.
THE young men are all about 1S
years They are at that age that con
siders drinking a smart thing and at
fairs of the heart quite necessary.
They dress loudly and their garments
are adorned with many buttons They
| cali loudly for the blythe bartender
and they employ the tone of men
about in ordering and settling fol
| their drinks.
| They cluster thickly about the an
breviated bar and their conversation
| as ii floats into the cafe is not edi
flying
THIS in Detroit, the city beauIi-
full; the city that is forging to the
front lin a way) by leaps and bounds
Possibly we could get along with
less of our beauty.
Possibly. too, there is such a thing
as growing too fast for the good of
health and morals.
We have remarked that the Times
exposure of this hell-hol calls for the
bushes of every man in Detroit, and
| il does just as surely as il calls for
the tears and the sorrow of mothers
When We come to the question.
HOW CAN A DIVE OF THIS CHAR
ACTER EXIST IN A CITY LIKE
DETROIT, the answer comes back:
| 1T Is LICENSED BY MEN!
| Licensed as a dance hall PER-
lMITTED IN WRITING BY THE
POLICE DEPARTMENT to first lure
innocent and silly girls into the pres
fence of the viper, and next licensed
lby the great state of Michigan TO fll
them with beer and wine, to drug
them and deaden their brains until
they are senseless of the poison and
the danger in the serpent's fangs.
THE bright lights and the gayness
Iof the quickstep are there. but only 10
emphasize the darkness of the morrow
land the heaviness of mothers heart
as she sits by the burning light in the
window waiting for a daughters foot
steps at the gate"
Do the people of Maine want such
license conditions?
That is regulation" exemplifed. 1t
is that for which the liquor interests
outside of Maine. and their paid tools
within the State, are working
| The liquor interests and their
henchmen tell us that such ''regula
ton" of the liquor traffic as this is
necessary TO do away with "hypoe-
irisy" and perjury; that when we
have this sort of thing we shall he
trusting the people; that our regard
: for law will increase, and that Maine
, will grow. business will boom and we