DIVISION THREE — BRAINS. 25 1 



supreme court, they would relinquish $500 of their fee. Reardon & Daly 

 were attorneys for the saloon-keeper. They talked of great confidence in 

 their case, and other lawyers freely expressed the opinion that "the prohib- 

 itionists would get beaten out of their boots;" yet in spite of this they 

 fought shy and pursued a dallying policy, as the following correspondence 

 shows : 



lyos Angeles, Cal., May 26, 1887. 

 Dr. H. A. Reid, 



Dear Sir : — We presume you think we are making slow progress, and 

 you are certainly right in that presumption. We have been camping with 

 those fellows from day to day until we are out of patience. They keep 

 promising to go into court, but always have some little thing which they want 

 done 3^et. We have notified Reardon & Daly that unless they take the mat- 

 ter into Court by to-morrow noon we will consider all stipulations at an end 

 and take our course in the matter. If they do not proceed we will notify 

 you and the marshal, and let the war go 07i. Our idea will be to put him into 

 jail and keep him there until released by legal process. We will write you as 

 soon as we know result. Yours, 



Williams & McKinley. 



But the very next day the following note was sent: "We got our 

 habeas corpus case disposed oi pro forma in the Superior Court this morning. 

 We have had a great amount of trouble and annoyance in getting those 

 people to do anything, but they came to time at last. W. & McK." 



The case now went to the Superior Court ; but that court refused to act 

 upon it until it had had a full hearing in the L,os Angeles Superior Court, 

 and so sent it back with an order for Judge Wm. A. Cheney to hear the 

 case. His decision, rendered July 7, 1887,* fully sustained the law. The 

 case then went to the supreme court again ; and this body waited their full 

 limit of time, ninety days after hearing, before rendering their decision. 

 But when it came [October 31, 1887], the whisky lion of California slunk 

 back into his den with a very large flea in his ear, for six out of seven of 

 the supreme judges agreed that the Pasadena ordinance was good bed-rock 

 law under the constitution of California, and also of the United States. 



The Pasadena saloon had been running in full glare all this time, 

 pending the decision ; but when the result was reported by telegraph the 

 proprietor did not wait for official notice to be served upon him. He closed 

 the saloon at once, packed up his outlawed liquors and bar fixtures and 

 moved out of town before the order of the supreme court could reach the 

 city officers. A great mass meeting to give thanks and rejoice over this 

 signal victory was held in the Methodist Church ; and Pasadena then stood 

 as the first and only town in California which had driven the liquor trade 

 out of its borders by legal process, fought and sustained through all the 

 courts. The committee now deemed its work done ; and from a brief run- 

 ning sketch of the whole matter in the editorial columns of the Valley Ufiion, 

 I quote a few paragraphs worthy of permanent historic record : 



*The arguments on the case were heard June 27, and again June 30. 



