Leo Saloon Man Is Kept in Business by Petitions Signed by Residents of Cedar Creek Township

Leo Saloon Man Is Kept in Business by Petitions Signed by Residents of Cedar Creek Township

Say if Liquor Must Be Sold in the Community, They Want the Sale to Be in Hand of a Careful Dispenser of Intoxicants.

[Photograph: a two-story frame building with a wide porch, trees in the yard, and a man standing at the far left; an oval inset portrait at the right, captioned “PETER GERBER.”]

“Betcha he can’t get nothing over to Pete’s.”

“Betcha he kin.”

“Betcha he can’t,’ cause Pete don’t sell fellows that gets drunk.”

This bit of parley on the streets of Leo between a couple of the young hopefuls of this Allen county village is a fair index to the methods of Peter Gerber, who conducts a saloon there and who continues in the business for no other reason than that the people of the community importuned him to continue until they could find a man to succeed him who would conduct the only retail liquor establishment in the town after the same fashion he has carried it on for six years.

Gerber is regarded as a model saloon man and James D. Butt, William C. Schwier and F. William Franke, of the board of county commissioners, stated that they would readily renew his license at any time without the character witnesses required of others engaged in the business if the law permitted.

“Pete,” as he is familiarly known, was a timber buyer for a great number of years and is known from one end of Allen county to the other and in the adjoining counties, and his first venture in the saloon trade was when he took hold at Leo.

Mild-Mannered But Firm.

Casual acquaintance with Gerber without knowledge of the business in which he is engaged would never indicate that he sells liquor for a livelihood. He is mild-mannered in the extreme, courteous and polite all the time, but just as firm as he is polite and it is said of him that no one addicted to the excessive use of liquor can buy a drink of him for love or money.

Those who know him never try it and those who do not know him never try it a second time. This article is not intended in any way to advertise his business and he not only did not seek any publicity, but rather tried to shun it, and the story is written for the simple purpose of indicating that the traffic can be controlled and that it would be greatly benefited if others engaged in the trade would adhere to the rules he has lain down and followed.

Why the Petition Was Signed.

In Cedar Creek township there is a strong anti-saloon element, but it has never been strong enough to eliminate the sale of liquor there, and many people who are opposed to the sale of intoxicants on principle recognized that less injury could be done by a man whose record had proven that he would keep within the confines of the law than one who would adhere only to the extent that was necessary to prevent the revocation of his permit.

Gerber is a bachelor and refrains from the use of liquor and one of his rules is to close early in the evening—much earlier, as a rule, than the law requires him to, and the thought of selling on the Sabbath never occurs to him.

He does not extend credit to anybody, on the ground that a man whose resources are so limited that he has not the cash to pay for his drinks has no business drinking, and a sign in his place reads: “Our credit department is on the roof. Take the elevator.” This is pointed out to people who endeavor to “stand him off.”

Among the business men of Leo and with the people generally Gerber stands well and even those whose abhorence of drink and its awful consequences and who are fighting it day and night and who hope eventually that enough votes can be obtained to declare the township dry, hold no personal complaint against him.

Had Rather Have Him Out.

These people want him out of business and in this sentiment they are joined by a vast number of people, but the law gives its sanction to his place and they are powerless to prevent its existence so long as they can not command ballots enough to banish the traffic.

Unless the township goes dry the people say they will try to hold him until they can get “something just as good.”