Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1854-08-02
FsT as RsgIstsE.
Iicense no Incense.

-
tginia adopting some kind of prohibitory
law regulating the sale of spirituous Ii
quors. I am also prompted to this by
the late order of the county court which
requires the Sheriff of Harrison county
at the election held in August next, to take
the vote of the people for and against the
court granting license to sell spirituous
liquors as beverage.
Now if l understand the object of the
court in this, is to find out the minds of
the people on this very important subject,
and in the event the majority of voters
are against it. they will carry out their
wishes by Withholding license as they have
right to do.
The question will soon be put. and all
the people of Harrison want, is light if
they know the best way surely they will
follow it. 1 do not suppose that they are
so attached to old laws. and ways, as to
be like the boy who carried stone in
one end of his mill sack to balance the
rain in the other, because his father had
done so. No; if they are at any time
convinced that there is a better way Of
doing than our fathers knew or practiced,
they will leave the cid. circuitouS and
rough lOu:e, and strike out the nearer
and better way. This principle is at the
foundation of all improvements and re-
forms. do not say we should travel a
road simply because it is new but con-
vince me and the people of Harrison, that
a change in our laws regulating the sales
ofspirituous liquors will be a blessing,
and then we are for that change. This
is the,subject now before US and I am
one who goes for a change in our law on
this subject. do not regard it any lon
ger an experiment, other states have tried
it, and it works well.
| Look at our present law. its workings
and bearings. 1t authorises the court to
say TO CERTAIN persons applying. if you pay
| $50 you may buy and sell as much spir-.
iruous liquor as you please; and in Gaze
the most dietcrious consequences result
from it. you shall not be accountabe-
L you sell liquor to man and he gets
neighbors-or whips his wifeL-or starves
his children--or murders his friends or
commits suicide. you shall not be hurt for
1t; L will protect you; you paid ME 500
no one shall modest you.
Cannot this law be amended, so as to
divest it of its partially 1t is evident
to the most casual observer that lis pre-
sent bearing is oppressive to many. Viz.
a. IL G. are living in quiet neigh
borhood or viIlage,-application is made
by D. to the court for license to sell Ii
quor in the above named place-license
is granted liquor is now brought on in
large quantities. and sold to Tom, Dick,
Harry, or anybody who will buy. and
some given away. Now this once peace
able community, is turned into Il bowling
hell. Drinking, gambling, quarreling,
fighting, and every abomination take the
place of the peace and quiet which be-
fore reigned.
Now these neighhors are not only an
noyed in person by these semilegalized
walking whiskey kegs. but they see to
their great grief. their sons, one after an
other, freQuenting this haunt of vice.
| And alas for them ! they see thaLthey are
not escaping unscalhed No, their red
! eyes, and bIoale9 face show that they
have been bit by the monster and what
appears wonderful 10 them is, after being
once bitten the desire to be, again until
all that was once lovely in them has lied
and gone and nothing remains but a
bloated, polluted. hagyarI form, of the
once lovely boy.
But he says, what Of all this it is a
free country, and if the people do get
drunk. and fight, and kill each other,
whose business is it but their own? Their
own who do you mean? Why those
who pay their money for license, and
those who drink, Of course, and no one
else! Now let me ask you. my friend
is it not a concern Of that poor wife,
whose habitatiOn is forsaken until Ger
tain hour. when her drunken husband
comes staggering home. not to cheer and
console that heart broken wife, but to
cause her cup of grief to overflow by cross
looks, angry words, and cruel treatment?
And is IL not a concern of those poor or
phan children. who are bereft Of father
and mother, through the workings OF this
deadly monster? And are not those pa
rents concerned whose son is made a
drunKard, their neighbours devils, and
their once quiet, peaceable settlement
turned into Sodom And is it not con.
Germ of the country when they are over
burthened with tax caused from lawsuits
and PauPerlsms growing out of the liquor
traffic. am aware that some still argue
that it furnishes revenue instead of taking
from 1t it is true it furnishes revenue
but it is like man engaged iQ putting
money in your pocket. who let's fall one
dollar each time the hand enters the
pocket, and on drawing it out, takes ten
dollars out.
Let me say to my old farmers, merch-
ants and mechanics who have to bear the
principal part Of the expences of the gov
eminent. look to the bearing of this Ii.
cense question before you vote for it. l
tell you 1t is a matter which concerns YOU
much. The grocery men of course will
go for it. because they expect to get gain
by their sales. The old topper goes for it