Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 2, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 May 1858 — NUISANCE LAW IN MASSACHUSETTS. [ARTICLE]

NUISANCE LAW IN MASSACHUSETTS.

Chief Justice Shaw, of Massachusetts, recently decided that selling liquor in that State cbntrcry to law was a nuisance, and that any man or set of men would be justifiable in abating such nuisances. The work of abating these nuisances has commenced, according to the Boston Traveller of the 10th inst.; “Chief of Police Willey, on Saturday night, aS he was walking down Bridge st., East Cambridge, saw a man who was intoxicated go into a plaice where liquor is sold, and kept by one Dillon. Haying watched the place, and seeing the man come out so badly intoxicated that he could not get along without assistance, Mr Willey came to the conclusion that the place was nothing but a nuisance, and concluded to abate it. Thereupon he entered said shop, and after examing- the liquors kept for sale, destroyed them in a workmanlike manner. He next proceeded to a place on the same street, kept by: one Phillip Monahan, and there found four young men around the bar, with their glasses filled with liqvior, ready to he swallowed; whereypon he went through the ceremony of demolishing jugs, decanters, and their contents. Thence he went to a place kept by one Glasson, where people resort in the night time, and on the Sabbath, to spend their time, money, amd what reputation they may have, and in like manner destroyed the contents of the various jugs, &.c. There is a set of people in Cambridge who are peddling out liquor evey to school children, and the office of the Chief of Police is often visited by broken-hearted women to see if something cannot bje done to stop the ruin which is upon them- The remedy which the Chief has adopted is, he thinks, the only one that can be found. Prosecution after prosecution having failed, plain’y through perjured witnesses, the Chief o! Police has taken a course in accordance with the recent decision oLJudge Shaw.” 1 f The Boston Herald gives the following as the latest method'of putting the law in practice: j U “The proprietor of one of the most popular bar-rooms in this city was considerably astonished yesterday by a customer who walked into the place, took a stiff horn of brandy, and then, with the utmost nonchalence, smashed the tumbler from which he had drank upon the counter. He was walking out in the coolest manner possible, when the proprietor asked whether he intended to pay for what he had drank and what he smashed. The man replied contemptuously that he intended nothing of the kind, but would throw himself upon his legal rights, as illustrated in Judge Shaw’s exposition of the nuisance act. The knight of the toddy-st : ck was greatly enraged, and hinted something about his right to kick the brandy smasher out doors, whereupon that individual left the premises withour further argument.” At Rockport a salute of ten guns was fired in honor of the decision of Judge Shaw.