New Britain herald., 1917-03-07
Smuggling of Liquor to Prisoners
 Causes Police to Act
GET TOO MANY EYE OPENERS

Special Locks Provided for Doors Leading to Baseme1t-School Board May Elect Prior to Succeed Rev. R. H. Burton-othcr Items.
 Hoping to prevent future violations of the law concerning: the smuggling of liquor to prisoners in the cells in the lookup the authorities have placed special locks on some of the doors leading to the basement of the town building and access to the place is now denied to all except po- lice officers and firemen, the latter re- quiring keys that will enable them to open the doors leading to the fire de- partment apparatus. In the past few years there have been number of fragrant violations of this much needed law but condi- tions at theNtown building have been such that 1t is next to impossible to secure 8 conviction, although in some cases the authorities have been l reasonably certain as to the identity of the guilty parties.
 Friends of local men locked up on intoxication charges frequently pay them a. visit on the morning follow ing their arrest, and 1t often happens that they bring them an "eye opener" with the result that when the court officials are ready to give the prisoner a hearing he is found to be even more intoxicated than he was at the time of his arrest.
 Recently the attention of the au- thorities was called to such a case and while the police had information az to who was responsible for bring 1 ing the liquor to the lookup they were without the evidence necessary | to secure a conviction and conse- quently the law was evaded.
 Violation of the law governing the case in question carries severe pen atty and justices of the peace have an- nounced their intention of making an example of anyone found guilty of the practice. By keeping the prisoners isolated until they are given their hearings the authorities hope to pre-
 vent their alleged friends from surrep-
 titiously getting liquor into their cells.
 All who have keys to the basement
 are now known to the oficials and in
 case there are any future violations
 of the law less difnculty will be en-
 countered in identifying the guilty par
 ties.
 May Elect Prior.
 Edward F. Prior may be elected .
 member of the school board to suc-
 ceed Rev. R. H. Burton, resigned, at
 the March meeting of that body
 scheduled for this evening. It is understood that the democrats will
 propose his name as the new commit teeman and following an established precedent concurrent action by the re- publican representatives is probable. The democrats have been having a hard time filling the vacancy. There has been "a dearth of candidates and the job has gone practically begging. H. A. Castle, B. D. Spellman and Jo-' ,seph T. Mccarthy have been offered the berth but they have declined. Other names have been suggested but
 their owners have shown an unwill-
 ingness to become affiliated with the
 board. It is said that MT. Prior is
 willing to fill the vacancy and his
 election seems likely.
 The board at tonight's meeting also
 expects to consider the acceptance
 of plans for the proposed addition of
 four rooms to the Broad street school
 house. Architect Unkelbach is ex-
 pected to submit the drawings with
 the changes suggested by Chairman
 A. l.. Rogers, and if they are satis-
 factory to the members, call for
 bids for the contract will be issued.
 The building will not be needed until
 the opening of the fall term but the
 school committee is anxious to get
 it completed as soon as possible, that
 there may be no question regarding