p. 10 | KEEPING S'LOON

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 25, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 25.

KEEPING S'LOON.

The following true story—“only the name was not Smith”—is told in the Pittsburg Dispatch:—

“I hear that Smith has just sold out his saloon,” said one of a couple of middle-aged men, who sat sipping their beer and eating a bit of cheese in a Smithfield saloon.

“Yes,” responded the other, rather slowly.

“What was the reason? I thought that he was just coining money there.”

The other nibbled a cracker abstractedly for a moment and then said: “It’s rather a funny story. Smith, you know, lives on Mount Washington, right near me, where he has an excellent wife, a nice home, and three as pretty children as ever played outdoors—all boys, you know, the oldest not over nine, and all about the same size. Smith is a pretty respectable sort of citizen—never drinks or gambles, and thinks the world of his family.

“Well, he went home one afternoon last week and found his wife out shopping or something of that sort. He went through the house into the back yard, and there under the apple tree were the little fellows playing. They had a bench and some bottles and tumblers, and were playing ‘keep saloon.’ He noticed that they were drinking something out of a pail, and that they acted tipsy. The youngest, who was behind the bar, had a towel tied around his waist, and was setting the drinks up pretty free. Smith walked over and looked in the pail. It was beer, and two of the boys were so drunk that they staggered. A neighbor’s boy, two years older, lay asleep behind the tree.

“Boys! boys! you must not drink that!” he said, as he lifted the six-year-old from behind the bench.

“We’s playin’ s’loon, papa, an’ I was a-sellin’ it just like you,” said the little fellow. Smith poured out the beer, carried the drunken boy home, and then took his own boys home, and put them to bed. When his wife came back, she found him crying like a child. He came down town that night, and sold out his business, and says he will never sell or drink another drop of liquor. His wife told mine about it, and she broke down crying while she told it.”