246 HISTORY OF PASADENA. 



and from it I quote a few additional points : "Remarks were made by per- 

 haps a dozen different persons on various phases of the problem, and finally 

 a committee was appointed to ascertain and report what can be lawfully done 

 toward the suppression of liquor saloons in our city, and to coimsel a?id co- 

 operate with our city authorities for the abatement of this great public evil. 

 * * A general mass meeting was called for Thursday (to-morrow) even- 

 ing, at Williams' Hall, to hear a report from the committee. They have 

 already in hand the result of test cases in the supreme court from Los 

 Angeles, Riverside, Butte county and other places, besides opinions from 

 high legal authority on other points. Also, Mr. Hardy, mayor of the city 

 of lyincoln, Nebraska, will be at the meeting and give the experience of 

 Lincoln, Omaha and other cities with the famous ' high license law' of that 

 state." 



[The fact was, Dr. Reid had been already at w^ork on the matter, collect- 

 ing court decisions, copies of ordinances, lawyers' opinions, etc., with the 

 knowledge and co-operation of F. J. Culver, general secretary of the Y. M. 

 C. A.] 



The mass meeting was held as proposed, and the hall packed full, Col. 

 O. S. Richer acting as chairman. A full report was published in the Union 

 of January 29. Dr. Reid for the committee presented the results of legal 

 contests with the saloons in Butte county, and city of Los Angeles, and at 

 Riverside — all showing that the courts were against them, and that they 

 could be outlawed. Yet this meeting resulted chiefly in talk, and an en- 

 larged sanction to the continuance of the Anti-Saloon Committee, for whose 

 aid a collection was taken, amounting to $44.65 The chairman of the com- 

 mittee had prepared a schedule of five specific inquiries, covering every 

 possible method of dealing with the liquor traffic under California law ; his 

 intention being to secure eminent legal counsel upon all these points, as the 

 basis of the future work of the committee. 



On the ensuing Sunday evening [January 30] .a vast congregation as- 

 sembled at the Methodist church to hear a temperance discourse which had 

 become somewhat famed as "Dr. Bresee's hyena sermon." At its close 

 some resolutions were adopted, and a committee was named, consisting of 

 Dr. Reid, S. Townsend, Dr. Wm. Converse, Chas M. Parker and Rev. A. 

 W. Bunker, to carry out the purpose of the resolutions. Before leaving the 

 church this committee held a meeting and formally consolidated with the 

 committee appointed at the Williams Hall meetings on Sunday and Thurs- 

 day previously, and named Dr. Reid chairman of the joint committee. 



Now it should be noted that the city attorney, N. P. Conrey, in common 

 with a majority of lawyers at that time, held the opinion, and so advised 

 the city council, that there was no law in California under which they could 

 enact a prohibitory ordinance in Pasadena ; and the Pasadena Star [H. J. 

 Vail, editor] thrust this doctrine continually into the face of its readers, thus 

 prejudicing them against the efforts of the Anti-Saloon committee. Dr. 

 Reid took his five questions to ex- Lieut. Gov. Mansfield, who had been a 



