Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1855-05-09
THE LATE LICENSE LAW.

goes into operation. We have no doubt the
late License Law has some defects, nor is it
viewed in its most favorable aspect, such {
law as temperance men desire, OF as will cffec
tually restrain the sale of Intoxicating liquors
But will denunciation and ridicule make the
matter any betterl Will it not, upon the con-
trary, be productive of the most serious inju,
ry?
1t may be true that many Of those who now
drink at rum shops viii lay in "jug" for
drinking at home, but this is no argument
against the law, or any other restriction up
on the liquor traffic that will lesson the evils
of intemperance. If the law be only partially
enforced. il will prevent much evil. For al
though it will not prevent the laying in of a
| stock for s.home consumption" it will pre-
vent those who have not the ready means to
! purchase ssstock" to 'slay in,'' from buying
| liquor at every corner at three cents glass;
| This will reduce the ssdrunkards at home'' to
those whose present means are sufficient to
| prevent their wives and children from starving
and freezing under their intemperance. 1t
will, in great measure, protect the poor. who
labor for daily wages, from the temptation TO
drink at every corner, and whose wives and
children suffer for the bread, clothing, and
fuel that might have been bought with the
money thus expended for liquor. y man with
a wife and six children works for seventy five
cents daily, spends 12a cents of it for liquor,
goes home drunk nightly, is ill-naturcd, ty-
raunical, and abuses those whom he is bound
to protect. His annual receipts are only S23I,
and of those $50 expended in liquor; an
| expenditure which not only robs his children
| Of many necessaries, put makes him tyrant
at his own hearth. But as his intempcrance
| inevitably increases, his income diminishes
| through time lost in debauchery, and through
its consequent sickness, while more Of that
scanty income is expended in liquor. How
much stock can this poor man lay in from
his scanty daily wages. And il be can find it
only at some store distant from his home and
his work, where he dare not drink it, but must
carry it away, how often viii he step aside TO
procure it There is very great difference
between this, and openly meeting him at every
corner with the temptation to drink. Let the
law keep it out of his daily way, and he will
sooner renounce it than encounter difficulty
and disgrace in seeking it.
But shall we make distinction between the
rich and the poor? Enact law which the rich
can evade because they are rich, and which
the poor must obey because they are poor p
This is not democratic. We answer that it is
emincntly democratic, because it enables the
poor to improve their condition, by removing
from their reach what inevitably makes their
condition worse; and that we make no legal
distinction between the rich and the poor, BY
| law which equally commands all. The rich
make the distinction to their own injury.
If the law cannot efectually prevent that,
the cause must be saught in the insufficient
cy OF any law to change the moral characters
and dispositions of men. Law can merely
restrain acts. 1t can terrify bad men from
crime, but cannot eradicate their desire to
commit it. If this be anti-democratic, we
should like q little more of such aris-
tocracy, for it protects the poor from vice,
poverty and suffering, and does NOT so protect
the rich, not because it Uoutd not, but because
they ,cill not be so protected.
Let us then give the law fair trial, and if
it be found practically impossible, or injurious,
why, repeal or amend it. We cannot but be-
lieve that defective as it is, it viii be produc-
tive of vast deal of good. There are many
men now who drink at the splendidly decora-
ted bar of the tavern, that will scorn carrying
the soul destroying beverage to their homes
by the '.jug'' full, and will soon rejoice in the
compulsion that makes them temperate. And
there are others also, who cannot resist the
temptation that meets them at every step who
will rejoice in this compulsory deliverance.-
And if there are those who will lay in their
e.jugs'' and thus provide means for maintain
ing hell at their own firesides, wives and
sibility to both husband and children to break
the jugs. And we presume that men fit to be
husbands and fathers, however they may storm
and rave when drunk, will thank their wives
spring from rushing headlong to the drunk
ards hell. Any wife could make her home
too hot to hold one of her own sex, to whom she
thought her husband little too partial, could
she not raise as much thunder and lightning
over, and exercise as much address in getting
rid of the jug7 But this opposition, say the
rumsellers, would disturb domestic tranquility
The Jug don't disturb it though! Not bit
of it, :"e
ELECTION IN PHILADELPHIA.
During last week the opponents of Ameri-
caniSm were standing about our corners sscrow-
ing" over what they termed the aKnow Moth
4 - NJ.