Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 September 1874 — Bit of a Row. [ARTICLE]

Bit of a Row.

R. F. Goddard sells beer by the bottle to be drunk off from his premises- A large, red-faced, beer-drinking man, named Allen, has been working at Kelley’s photograph gallery for some time past, who has made a practice of not only drinking to excess himself, but also of getting beer.for Jack Warner, and other men, whose appetites for strong drink have obtained mastery over their judgments and better natures. Tuesday afternoon Goddard refused to sell Allen any more beer, after he and Jack Warner had drunk enough to make them intoxicated, whereupon Allen proceeded to help himself by main force. With the assistance of a bystander Allen was knocked down once or twice and putoutof the room. Jack Warner heard of it, and then he wanted Allen to “clean out the shebang.” Goddard closed up and both Allen and Jack went to breaking down the door. By this time quite a crowd had gathered around, and after the drunken rowdies had broken a pane of glass, Mr. Norman Warner made an assault on Allen, which culminated in a fight between the two ; Warner succeeded in planting some heavy blows on the ruffian’s physiognomy, but he was a little the heaviest, longest armed, and younger, and succeeded in choking Warner to the ground. Meanwhile the bystanders began to interfere when Jack Warner attenpted to keep them back until Allen should revenge himself on bis brother, but they were too many for Jack, and in less time than it takes to tell it he was down in the street a rod away pretty badly punished about his head, face and body, three or four persons having succeeded in getting in their best licks on him. Allen was taken off from Warner, a bleeding and badly-bruised up-individual, and commenced crying like a baby. Among other amusing expressions, he remarked that he "always did like the people of Rensselaer; I have been out hunting for a week, and am weak and tired out; this all comes from beer,” and he begged piteously for somebody to wash and dress his wounds. Allen was subsequently arrested and fined for breaking the door of Goddard’s place of business.