THE EVIL STILL INCREASING.

Still the evil of drunkenness went on increasing under the license
system, until in 1692, we find in a preamble to certain more stringent
laws for the regulation of the traffic, this sad confession: "And
forasmuch as the ancient, true and principal use of inns, taverns,
ale-houses, victualing-houses and other houses for common entertainment
is for receipt, relief and lodging of travelers and strangers, and the
refreshment of persons on lawful business. * * * And not for
entertainment and harboring of lewd or idle people to spend or consume
their time or money there; therefore, _to prevent the mischief and great
disorders happening daily by abuse of such houses_, It is further
enacted," etc.--not prohibition of the sale; but further restrictions
and penalties. How far these restrictions and penalties were effective,
appears from the statue of 1695, in the preamble of which is a complaint
that divers persons who had obtained license to sell liquor to be taken
away and not drunk in their houses, did, notwithstanding, "give
entertainment to persons to sit drinking and tippling there," while
others who "_have no license at all_ are yet so hardy as to run upon the
law," to the "great increase of drunkenness and other debaucheries."

These colonial fathers, in their efforts to lessen the evil of drinking
by restrictive license, for which a fee to the State was required,
opened a door for the unlicensed dram-shop, which was then, as it is
now, one of the worst forms of the liquor traffic, because it is in the
hands of more unscrupulous persons, too many of whom are of the lowest
and vilest class, and whose tippling-houses are dens of crime and infamy
as well as drunkenness.

How this was in the colony of Massachusetts under license in 1695 is