Cities and towns -- Growth -- Fiction; Wales -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
By this time there was one question which, more than others, was
beginning to disturb Llanyglo. This was the question of drink. In the
old days, when the old brown horse who had walked as carefully as if he
had had a spirit-level inside him had first brought the Gardens and
their luggage so softly over the sandhills, there had been no inn nearer
than Porth Neigr. Save on market-days, scarce a drop of alcohol passed
a Llanyglo man's lips from year's end to year's end. If John Pritchard
had preached occasionally against drunkenness, it had been
conventionally only, with little more bearing on Llanyglo's own habits
than if he had preached against cannibalism. Then Railhead had crawled
across the land; Howell Gruffydd had found it necessary to warn the
young against contamination; and with the building of the "Cambrian" had
come Llanyglo's first licence.
But for long enough after that there had been no public-houses. The
travelling army of labourers had had their own canteens, and even when a
necessary beer-licence or two had been applied for at Sessions, the
applications had been granted as it were behind the hand, and the affair
had been got over as quickly as possible. No: Tommy Kerr's unconscious
soft carolling of _Glan Meddwdod Mwyn_ as he had crossed the sandhills
on that torrid Sunday afternoon had held no real personal reproach for
Llanyglo. For Porth Neigr, perhaps yes; for other places, yes; but not
for Llanyglo.
But since then things had changed. Things had changed since they had
been able to tell themselves that what went on in the "Cambrian" lounge
was no concern of theirs. They had begun to change when Llanyglo had
been no longer able to shut its eyes to the beer-drinking of the navvies
and bricklayers and the brothers Kerr. Then for a time a convenient
connection had been established between drunkenness and rough trousers
tied about the knees with string. For cases such as these, the little
Station at the extreme end of Gardd Street, with "Police" over the door
and geraniums in the windows, had ample powers. The half-dozen
constables must exercise discretion, that was all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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