704 



GLKANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15. 



na starts open saloons it will be a general sig- 

 nal for the rest of the county to follow suit, 

 for the county-seat ought to lead. Shall we 

 not rather make Medina County dry as a 

 whole ? Most of you know what the effect of 

 open saloons has been in our neighboring 

 town of Wadsworth. A short time ago one of 

 Wadsworth's old and respected citizens was 

 held up and robbed by two men almost in 

 broad daylight, and almost in the heart of the 

 town. He yelled lustily for help ; but, al- 

 though people were all around within hearing 

 distance, nobody paid any attention to him. 

 Did you notice the excuse the papers gave 

 for his not being heard and receiving help ? 

 Why, they said there were so many drunken 

 brawls going on almost constantly at everj^ 

 hour of the day that nobody paid any atten- 

 tion to his ' ' yelling. ' ' They took it as a matter 

 of course. And this is not a solitary instance 

 by any means of similar troubles in and 

 around Wadsworth. Have we had any such 

 goings-on as this here in Medina during the 

 last twelve years? 



THE TREATING HABIT. 

 But this is not all. One of the greatest evils 

 attendant upon the open saloon is the treating 

 habit. A young man steps up to the bar, and 

 invites all to drink to his health. After all the 

 rest in the room have " returned the compli- 

 ment " they have had anywhere from three to 

 ten drinks apiece. It is this treating that 

 makes drunkards. If people will have liq- 

 uor, let them have it in their homes. It is not 

 the beer-keg in the family cellar, but the open 

 saloon that is a curse to any town. 



A LEGAUZED SALOON. 



My story is getting rather long, dear 

 friends; but there is one thing more I must 

 speak of. An open saloon is legalized by law. 

 The saloon keeper is thus made respectable. 

 He can stand out in front of his shop, and 

 hold up his head; and you, boys, make him 

 respectable by your votes. During the past 

 twelve years the liquor-vender has been rather 

 looked down upon. He is a criminal here in 

 the e3'e of the law. May be he got along 

 without punishment ; but, nevertheless, he 

 has been rather kept under — at least, if he 

 ever had to own up how he got his money. 



HOW THE SALOON IS RUN IN CITIES. 

 I have suspected that a good many boys in 

 Medina know very little about how the open 

 saloon is run in cities. Let me give you a 

 little inside view. The following is an ex- 

 tract from the August number of the Amer- 

 ican Issue: 



Rev. Gilbert J. Raynor, district superintendent of 

 the Toledo district of the Ohio Anti-saloon League, 

 some four weeks since, at the request of some citizens 

 of Columbus, came to this city in the capacity of a 

 detective. He caused to be inserted in a morning and 

 evening paper an advertisement asking any one hav- 

 ing a saloon for .sale to address him (giving certain 

 initials) at the newspaper offices. There was at once 

 a liberal response on the part of those having " wet " 

 goods for sale. Mr. Raynor, armed with the.se letters, 

 and being a possible purchaser, had easy access to the 

 saloon-keeper's books, and no trouble to tap the foun- 

 tains of information as to the secret methods of con- 

 ducting the saloon, gambling, and brothel business in 

 the city of Columbus. He found that absolutely no 

 legal restraint at all was being insisted upon by the 



city government. Gambling of all kinds was carried 

 on unmolesttd, by the knowledge and consent of the 

 police. In fact, he was given to understand that these 

 law-breakers regarded the police as their best friends, 

 and in return for their kindness they give the police 

 their drinks and cigars free. In one instance he fol- 

 lowed a policeman into a saloon, who ordered a drink, 

 and, when the bartender set him out the whi.sky and 

 the usual small glass to drink out of, the policeman, 

 in contempt for the Ifttle glass, said : " Give me .some- 

 thing to drink out of." Then turning to Mr. Raynor, 

 said, "You might as well have what you want when 

 you don't have to pay for it" Whereupon the bar- 

 tender gave him a large ale-gltss which he emptied, 

 then called for a half-pint, put it into his pocket, and 

 walked out without even offering to pay for it. In 

 every instance he found the Sunday sales in the 

 saloons to be much larger than the week-day sales, 

 usually more than double, and in some cases trebled. 

 When asked how they secured immunity from prose- 

 cution for these violations of law they said they paid 

 their money to the liquor-league, and things were 

 " fixed up at headquarters." When asked what thej^ 

 did if a patrolman interfered with the:n, they simply 

 said they reported him to "headquarters' The 

 unanimitj' with which they all assured him that 

 things were" fixed up at headquarters" was verjr 

 striking. Having gained what information he could 

 on these and other points, he sent for his "partner" 

 to come, who, when he arrived, accompanied him on 

 his rounds and received the same information direct 

 from th e .saloon-keepers. 



We then called together the pastors of the city in a 

 meeting at the Y. M. C. A. to hear a report from Mr. 

 Raynor. Mayor Black, the police, and county prose- 

 cutors were invited to Le present, but neither of them 

 availed himself of the privilege. The police pro.se- 

 cutor did send a letter stating that his official duties 

 made it impossible for him to he present. The county 

 prosecutor was out of the city, and Mayor Black 

 ignored the invitation. Mr. Raynor gave a detailed 

 account of his findings at this meeting, a part of which 

 was published in the papers of the city. This so in- 

 censed the officials that Chief Kelly swore out a war- 

 rant for Mr. Ra5'nor's arrest for criminal libel. He 

 was arre.sted at the Anti-.saloon headquarters in the 

 Wesley Block, put aboard the patrol wagon, and 

 rushed to the police .station, the driver sounding his 

 gong to attract attention. Once at the station hou.se 

 he was s^ arched and thru- 1 into a damp back cell as 

 if he had ju.^t murdered .somebody, and was a most 

 desperate and hardened criminal. In due time bail 

 in abundance appeared, and he was released on a $4(X) 

 bond. One feature of the searching part of the pro- 

 gram at the police court is especially worthy of no- 

 tice. With scrupulous care they relieved him of all 

 his papers, but left him in possession of his pocket- 

 knife, the only thing about him of the semblance of a 

 weapon that "might be used to commit murder or sui- 

 cide, and the very first thing that would have been 

 taken from any one else — the object being to find 

 .some papers upon his person that might incriminate 

 him. They extracted from among his papers brief 

 notes he had used when delivering his address to the 

 pastors at the Y. M. C. A., also some of the letters he 

 had received from the saloon-keepers. This they 

 doubtless had a right to do; but after he was released, 

 the papers — minus those mentioned above — were 

 returned with the assurance that these were all that 

 had been taken, and he was asked to sign his name 

 to a statement in a book kept for that purpose, that 

 he had received every thing, under penalty of receiv- 

 ing none if he refused. His watch and money were 

 finally returned to him, but his papers are still in 

 possession of the police. 



ACETYLENE GAS FOR ILLUMINATING. 



This to Uncle Amos. Although I never 

 met him I am well acquainted with him. We 

 have a Star generator in our house; have used 

 it since last fall. It stands all winter within 

 a few feet of the stove, and I think an acci- 

 dent could hardly happen. We could not be 

 better pleased w^ith the light. It is but little 

 trouble, and always ready to light, and is 

 beautiful when burning. We have two makes 

 of hand-lamps. They are nice, but more 

 trouble and expense to run than the generator. 



Newman, 111. M. A. Smith. 



