The Uprising Against the 'Dive' in Black Diamond
Citizens of the coal town band together to shut down a notorious saloon accused of illicit liquor sales and illegal operations.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The people of Black Diamond are thoroughly aroused against the saloon and house of ill-fame run by Greene & Co., and have appointed I. P. Calhoun and Rev. H. T. Shepard to push the prosecution. Warrants against Greene and Bartlett for maintaining a public nuisance were served by Deputy Sheriff J. H. McCorry on Thursday and they were brought down to jail on Friday. Greene, Bartlett, and their bartender are now under eleven charges of illegal liquor selling and one of keeping a disorderly house. The feeling is the stronger because it is claimed that his lease of the saloon and grounds from Mr. and Mrs. Timothy Morgans expressly excluded their running a house of ill-fame, which he has done openly, defying the people to prosecute him. It is also alleged that Greene's attorneys, White & Tyler, sought to obtain another lease covering Morgans' dwelling house, by falsely telling Morgans that his wife desired him to sign it.
“Greene, Bartlett and their bartender are now under eleven charges of illegal liquor selling and one of keeping a disorderly house.”
Small mining towns like Black Diamond often grappled with the moral and social friction caused by unregulated saloons, mirroring modern debates over the regulation of nightlife and public safety in gentrifying neighborhoods. The community's reliance on private individuals to push for legal action reflects a period where civic enforcement was often driven by moral outrage rather than bureaucratic systems.
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