Source: North Manchester Journal, November 10, 1904

A Receiver Appointed but an Appeal is Taken.

"B.F. Williams, acting as a special judge, this morning made an important decision in the circuit court. This was the suit of Charles H. Brower, prosecuting attorney, against the North Manchester Club House and Gymnasium. The suit was brought to have a receiver appointed. There was no proof submitted by the club and as a result he found for the state, and W.S. Bent, of Wabash, was appointed as the receiver. An appeal was promptly made, and this will make it impossible for the receiver to take charge for the present so that the club will not cease to exist at once, but can continue until this appeal is heard"--Wabash Plain Dealer.

This is the case that there has been several contradictory reports about and in which information seems hard to get at. although the suit is brought by the prosecuting attorney, the case is rather a civil than a criminal one, and while they do not appear in the suit as yet, it is understood that the prosecutor is being urged in the action by the anti-saloon league. The contention is that the club house company has violated the terms of its charter and that it should be taken away from them. The claim is that the company was incorporated under the state laws to do one kind of a business, namely, as its name implies, but is really doing something else, that is, selling liquor unlawfully, therefore the suit is to take its charter away and put the club out of business.

The club house people did not offer to contest the case in the circuit court but at once took an appeal to the supreme court, and until it is decided they will continue to run, being some what like a man who has been arrested but is out on bond. When the case will come up in the supreme court is not known. It generally takes considerable time to get a case into that court and a much longer time to get it out. People who know anything about the way that court does business are aware that they are very seldom in a hurry and it, therefore, looks as though there is a lot of long drawn out, if not expensive litigation in sight. The club house proposition has never been decided and this decision will affect the club house business all over the state, which makes the suit an important one.