seen above, and further appears in this recital taken from the statute
to further limit the spread of drunkenness, wherein it refers to "divers
_ill-disposed and indigent persons, the pains and penalties in the laws
already made not regarding,_ who are so hardy _as to presume to sell and
retail_ strong beer, ale, cider, sherry wine, rum or other strong
liquors or mixed drinks, and _to keep common tippling-houses_, thereby
harboring and entertaining apprentices, Indians, negroes and other idle
and dissolute persons, tending to the ruin and impoverishment of
families, and all impieties and debaucheries, and _if detected are
unable to pay their fine_." All such were sentenced to the
whipping-post.

Three years later, the curse of the licensed traffic had so augmented
that another effort was made for its regulation by the enactment of a
new and more comprehensive law entitled, "An Act for the Inspecting and
_Suppressing of Disorders_ in Licensed Houses."


WORSE AND WORSE.

How successful the good people of Massachusetts were in holding in check
and regulating the evil which they had clothed with power by license,
appears in the preamble to a new Act passed in 1711, "For reclaiming the
over great number of licensed houses, many of which are chiefly used for
revelling and tippling, and become _nurseries of intemperance and
debauchery_, indulged by the masters and keepers of the same for the
sake of gain."

So it went on, from bad to worse, under the Colonial Government, until
1787, when the State constitution was adopted. To what a frightful