The Story of a Dark Plot; Or, Tyranny on the Frontier — John Shaqi
The Story of a Dark Plot; Or, Tyranny on the FrontierA.L.O.C.
History
The Story of a Dark Plot; Or, Tyranny on the Frontier
A.L.O.C.
Smith, William W.; Temperance
I asked for another team to drive me to St. Albans, or a part of
the way, hitched up a team and sent a man with me whose name I do
not know. When I drove up to his place that Sunday morning, I
awoke him and said that I had brought back his horse which I had
been using for the last few days, and I also told him that this
party would settle for it, and he replied, "All right."'"
In this testimony of Kelly's we see the evidence of a preconcerted
plot in which many liquor men, both Canadian and American, must have
been initiated. It is an important fact also that the man entrusted
with the execution of their lawless plans was himself a bartender.
From the evil account of Mr. Smith's deeds, which Kelly says was given
to him on his arrival in Canada, it appears that the enemies of
temperance are not contented with taking the property of their
fellow-men as they often do in different ways, they are not even
satisfied with inflicting bodily injury and suffering upon those who
oppose their ways, but they would blight their reputation, and this,
too, is no small injury, for in the words of Shakespeare:
"Who steals my purse, steals trash; 'tis something, nothing;
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name,
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed."
The announcement also that the liquor men had reported their enemy to
the railway company, and that his discharge had been ordered, is
significant in the light of later events. The complaint made by them
to the company seems from the above to have been that Mr. Smith was
examining goods shipped into the county by way of Sutton Junction, and
this, we are assured, was a false report. However, it seems probable
that, if the hotel keepers had not been receiving illegal goods in
this way, they would not have been so suspicious. Another account of
Kelly's testimony was published in the Montreal _Daily Star_. Omitting
those parts which do not differ materially from the report in _The
Templar_, this report is as follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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