Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 99, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 April 1913 — LOOKS LIKE MORE SALOONS IN NORTH [ARTICLE]

LOOKS LIKE MORE SALOONS IN NORTH

Apparently There Will Be No Effort to Defeat l£onoviky Application ...At Town of DeMotte.

'■V.. 1 \ / ' • It looks like northern Jasper county is slipping from -the ranks of temperance. A year ago George Tilton was granted a license at Wheatfleld. People up that way said that Tilton was such a nice fellow that “it was a shame to beat him.” They told what an ideal place he would run, how orderly it would be and how he would lock up every evening air hour or two before the law required him to and would refuse to sell a man a drink after he had had “enough.” They said he would be the ideal bar ro,om proprietor and that he would dignify the saloon business. That was a year ago. What was forecasted for Tilton seems to have faded away. This year Tilton is not an applicant and The Republican is informed that four-fifths of the people of Wheatfleld township would have joined in a crusade against him had he applied. This change of feeling came about during the year and if reports can he depended upon the change of sentiment was prompted by the difference between the kind of a place Tilton was expected to run and the kind he did run. It is reported that the old soaks of the community found his saloon a loafing place and that they were there almost all the time. “It was so bad,” the writer was informed, “that the respectable thirsty of the town would not go there for a drink.”

If George Tilton was as nearly feet as those who boosted him for a saloon license a year ago and has degenerated to the extent reported, it is conclusive proof of the demoralizing effect of the saloon business. Now there are two other “nice men” anxious to tackle the business, tod on next Tuesday an election will he held In Wheatfleld township to determine the wishes of the people of that community. One of the applicants, it is a partnership affair, is none other than our old friend, Jim Anderson, of baseball fame. We have always regarded Jim a first-class fellow, but we fear the effects of a year in the saloon business, and for his sake and for the sake of the young hoys and the old soaks and the occasional drinkers of Wheatfleld township we wish that the temperance people of Wheatfleld would put the stamp of disapproval on the business. They owe it to the nice little town to stamp such a hell-hole out of the community. At DeMotte there is an applicant by the name of Konovsky, another “nice” man who wants to return to the business after a few years’ enforced absence from it. Konovsky has been running a “soft drink” establishment. There is always some suspicion attached to these places, especially when run by former saloon men, and Konovsky is reported to have come in for more or less suspicion and one of the reasons assigned at this time for no opposition to granting the license is that it is the only solution of the “soft” drink problem. It is understood that so far there has been no opposition whatever to Konovsky’s application,

While there is no application or file from Kniman it is reported that booze flows as freely as water did at Peru during the flood and that the old-fashioned precautions of calling for a “stick” fn it or giving a high eyebrow wink have been abandoned and that anyone can get a drink simply by asking for it. A half dozen or more men who are opposed to such things have talked with The Republican about it and we understand have also talked to the officers. Most of the men have said that they do not care to “get mixed up” In it hut there is every indication that the liquor laws are being violated right along. Possibly the dispenser of the booze in this fashion will soon have his character built up to the pitch where he will he regarded as a “nice” jman for the job of running a regular saloon at Kniman. It is a burning disgrace that Jasper county, once “dry” by an overwhelming majority, is having saloons gradually reinstated and the “wet” territory will grow until Fair Oaks and Parr and possibly Rensselaer are Included unless greater activity is shown by the temperance people, including the ministers. It iA not only the communities where the saloons are located that are affected by the saloons, hut all th,e county, and Rensselaer is injured by them. Our boys will make trips to the north part of the county during the coming summer and the temptation of the salrfhn with its wide-open doors and the fiendish smile of the barkeeper is certain to get some of them. This warning is a little late, but It is pot too late If the temperance people will shake off the lethargy that enthrawls them and get a big stick after the worst evil and the most demoralizing and degenerating business ever legalized. <