Lang Threatens to Have the Excise Commissioners Indicted

New York, 1895

The board of excise commissioners held their regular monthly meeting at the Town Hall on Monday. Commissioner Bauman presided. Commissioner Clayton was absent. Four licenses were granted as follows: Frank Mohr, Rosedale, hotel, three months, $15; John Dodd, Springfield, hotel, three mouths, $15; William J. Taylor, Woodhaven, hotel, three months, $15; John Solly, Chester Park, hotel, three months, $15.

Charles Lang protested against the granting of a licence to Solly. He said that he had moved out of the house for which Solly asked a license and the commissioners had transfered his license to the corner above, which place he kept at present. There was not room for two places, and they were not needed. He could get a hundred people at Chester Park to sign a petition against giving Solly a license. The commissioners paid no heed to what Lang said. Their action angered Lang and he told the commissioners that Solly's license had been got by bribery. "You know what I mean," he said, "and I will have more to say about it before long. I know what I am talking about. I can go before the grand jury and have you commissioners served the same as the Newtown excise commissioners."

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 8, 1895, p. 12.