There are thirteen licensed liquor dealers in Woburn. With the present limit of population this constitutes the full number to whom, under existing statutes, permission can be legally granted to vend intoxicating liquors.
But it does not necessarily follow that these thirteen licensed bar-rooms are the only places in our city limits where the weary traveler can slake his thirst with liquids which the law of the Commonwealth says shall not be sold except by persons who comply with the provisions of Chap. 100 of the Public Statutes.
By no means!
There are some places where liquor is openly sold in Woburn in violation of the law.
And these are no obscure dives either, hidden away in alleys, where there might be a possibility of their escaping official surveillance.
They are prominently located and openly conducted on our leading thoroughfares.
Of course, the police know they exist.
It is impossible to doubt that Mayor Bean more than suspects their existence.
What is known to the office force of the WOBURN DAILY CITY PRESS, can hardly be so cunningly concealed that His Honor, the Mayor, has failed to discover it.
How then is the tolerance of these unlicensed bars to be explained?
Can it be possible that there is any political significance to this state of things?
Strange to say, the proprietors of these illicit bars, their attendants and frequenters are all earnest supporters of Mayor Bean's conservative and economical administration and ardent advocates of his renomination. They believe he is the best man for the place. They probably have grounds for that belief.
But it is barely possible that the thinking, law-abiding and honorable element in the Democratic party, disagreeing with their estimate of Bean, declining to accept him and his unlicensed heelers as representative Democrats, may prove to be in control of the party and may dictate a more credible nomination.
We shall see.
Somebody is selling liquor, contrary to law, and without a license, on the street floor in the portion of a building numbered 480 and 482 Main street.
Who is he, and why is he protected in his illegal traffic?
The Woburn and Winchester directory—up to date—gives the following information concerning the occupants of the ground floor of this establishment:
"Salmon Thomas, steam ship agent, 480 and 482 Main street, house 10 Canal."
"Scally, John F., grocer, 62 Fowle and 480 Main, house 10 Canal."
Wherefore it appears that Thomas Salmon is engaged in business as an agent for the steamships—not "schooners" mind you—at 480 and 482 Main street, and that his son-in-law, John F. Scalley, is a vendor of "groceries" in a portion of the same premises.
Reputable employments these, consistent with the aim and consonant with the tone of Democracy, pure and undefiled.
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But who is it who is engaged in the illegal sale of liquor, without a license, in a backroom opening out of this agency for the promotion of navigation by steam and communicating directly with this emporium for the sale of table necessities, domestic and imported subject to the provisions of the McKinley bill.
Does Mayor Bean know?
The liquor is openly sold there in direct and flagrant contravention of the public statutes.
Not only is it sold there, but everybody knows that it is sold there, and the WOBURN DAILY CITY PRESS is in possession of competent legal evidence of the fact of such sale.
Aside from its violation of law, this is of course a palpable injustice to the thirteen men who paid the exceedingly large sum of eighteen hundred dollars each for the privilege of selling liquor in Woburn, this year in compliance with the provisions of law.
This state of affairs constitutes a foul disgrace to the repute of our fair city, and assuredly sets a seal of condemnation upon Mayor Bean's administration.
Everybody about the steamship agency, the grocery store and the groggery appears to be an ardent admirer of Mayor Bean. The attendants and frequenters are loud-voiced in their denunciations of anyone who declines to consider him the ideal mayor.
Some of them are signers of his nomination papers.
But the public will, of course, recognize that there is no political significance in that.
John C. Meehan contravenes the provisions of Chap. 100 of the Public Statutes at 103 Prospect St., but he does it in such a genial, gracious and hospitable manner, interspersing his labors as dispenser of unlicensed intoxicants with such cheery entertainment in the way of proverbial political philosophy, and comments both wise and witty, that it seems almost reprehensible to rebuke him for it. John seems a thorough good fellow at heart and it is a pity that the inexorable provisions of the population limit in our liquor laws conspired to shut him out from obtaining a license. Having no objection whatever to the proper sale of liquor in compliance with law, we know no-one in Woburn whom we would more cheerfully see admitted to the ranks of licensed vendors of "the ardent" than this same John C. Meehan. But then John ought not to sell liquor when he has no license to do so, and when his so-doing entails a distinct injustice upon his fellow-citizens who have suffered themselves to be mulcted in the sum of eighteen hundred dollars for the privilege.
And there is another thing John ought not to do any longer. And that is, to work and watch and pray for the renomination of Bean, so earnestly as he is at present doing, unless he desires the inference to be drawn that there is a secret bond of sympathy existing between his establishment and the municipal building.
Until another year affords him the possibility of obtaining a liquor license, John should confine his efforts at "setting 'em up" to the pool table for which he holds a proper authorization.
Nor must John blame the WOBURN DAILY CITY PRESS for giving him away. It was the public directory of our city for 1891 that did that. Reference to that invaluable compilation will show on page 124 the following entry:
"Meehan John C., liquor dealer, 103 Prospect , h. do."
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