Dramatic Recreations.
--There were no less than six cases on the Mayor's book yesterday, against White & Riley, proprietors of the bar-rooms at the Theatre, for selling ardent spirits without a license, and for dispensing the same to the thirsty multitude after 10 o'clock, P. M. A prolonged investigation took place, and the allegations were abundantly proved; and though the testimony possessed no interesting features, we feel justified in devoting some little space to the attendant circumstances, since the Theatre is an institution of popular resort, and hence the people are interested in its judicious guidance. The defence set up was that the proprietors of the barrooms offended through ignorance of the law, and that many persons came to the Theatre drunk, ergo, they were not made drunk there.The Mayor held that it was the duty of every one to keep posted in the law, and that ignorance furnished no palliation of the offence. Liquor had been sold at the theatre for many years, but not until recently had there been established a tier of bars from garret to cellar. If this thing were allowed to go on, with the miscellaneous population imported here from Baltimore and Washington, he could not tell how long it would be before there was a cathedral established with a bar in every pew! In the row of the previous night there were shouts of ‘"Come up, Baltimore!"’ and it was only through the providence of God that murder was not added to the disgraceful incidents of that occasion. Such things could not be tolerated here, and every method known to the law should be applied before this city should become what other cities had been. The ordinance requires that all bars shall close at 10 o'clock, but those who want liquor after this hour go to the theatre and get it. He was determined to put a stop to its sale there, unless those who sell it obtain a regular license from the Hustings Court.
The Mayor determined to send the parties on for indictment, and took time to consider of the amount of fine he would impose. Our private opinion has always been that a theatre properly conducted, is the most innocent and refining of all popular amusements; but the presence of drunken men breaks up the whole fun of the thing, and so long as there are individuals in a community who have never learnt the meaning of decency, they should not have the facilities of nourishing their brutish propensities.
