1883-84-Annual Report - Laserfiche WebLink

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GUIDE BOARDS. The law requires an annual report of Guide Boards and their condition. The practice of sportsmen making the Guide Boards a target, and others as thoughtless or malic- ious, have continued, as in years past, to deface and destroy the boards in every part of the town. Quite a number of new posts and boards have been put up, and there still remains a number either missing or useless. A reward was offered in the early part of the year, for the apprehension and conviction of those found guilty. The town, at the March meeting, voted "No License;" consequently no licenses have been granted. At the same meeting the following vote was passed: "That $1,050 be granted for Constables and Police, including enforcement of Liquor Law and Janitors of Town and Village Halls." - The Selectmen have been ready at any and all times to render such aid as might be required in the suppression of illegal liquor selling. It may have been said that there have been fre- quent violations of the law. If such has been the case, we were not able to to obtain proper evidence of the facts. Suspicions, however well founded, will not be received by a court as evidence. A court will consider and act only on positive knowledge of facts which in themselves constitute an offence, or which, beyond a reasonable doubt, prove an offence. It has been rumored that illegal selling was practised 6 in several places in town, but no evidence that wttfi t-rustworthy or reliable, has been furnished, and upon investigation no proof sufficient to convict has in any instance been found. If intoxicated persons are occasionally seen in our streets, it does not follow that the liquor was obtained in town. It should be remembered, that in twenty minutes' time, Woburn and Waltham can be reached, where, in either town, from thirty to forty places are licensed to sell. Again, with fourteen trains per day to Boston, it is useless to entertain the thought that liquor cannot or will not be had by those who desire it. Because we have kept our own counsel and have not heralded broadcast the measures we have taken, our reticence has been construed into apathy, or indifference. No complaint having been made that the public - houses in town were not conducted in a quiet and orderly manner; in the absence of such complaint, we made special and repeated enquiries of those who were truthful, and whose business relations were such as to afford them frequent opportunities to judge correctly, and in 110 instance have heard to the contrary. There is an old proverb, that sometimes " patient waiters are no losers." CONSTABLES. At the annual March meeting, two constables were elected, and were appointed police officers. Other police officers have been appointed upon special occasions, and we were ever ready and desirous to appoint on any occasion extra police, if necessity re-