New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1858-02-10

The policy and efficacy of Excise Laws, Pro
hibtory Acts and all Legislative measures intended
to repress or limit intemperence, is still earnestly
dscussed,on all hands. 1t is topic of the gravest
| importance on which the public mind has evidently
attained no definite conclusion. A correspondent,
| who mistakenly denounces Prohibition as "presup-
"posing system of espionage upon the interior
management of each mans household aud sump-
tuary restrictions upon the yiands and beverages
of his table"-when no act of Prohibition
has ever nterfered with any but the sellers OF
intoxicating DrDks-urges the abolition Of all our
present repressive or license laws and the enact
ment instead of the following:
An Acr for the 'rpDre''iOH Of Tipping Hoo'e&
Be IL enacted, &C.,
SECTION |. Every tipping house is public nuisance,
and the keeping OF 1t msdemeanor.
Our correspondent INDUCES in such halcyOn an
ticpations of the blessings TO flow from the passage
of his bill, that We cannot refuse to give them an
airing:
This is all he says that would be necessary,
except such sanctions the wisdom of the Legislature
might devise.
Such law could not be perverted to any political
purpose, and that would BIZ no small point gained
~ IL
operation-for il would reach alike the gorgeous
saloon and the humble grogshop. 1t is indscriminate
in its license TO all men. II may be understood by the
meanest capacity, without resort to lawyers or
construction by Court and no public officers would be
needed to effect its execution. For the beggared and
ruined wife the parent whose hopes have been or are
likely TO be destroyed, and the friend whose symps-
thes had been enlisted in behalf of tempted or de-
6,J
and the united energies of the Courts and the Juries
would do all that be done TO arrest the progress Of
bghted hope- ruined hearths, demoniac denum, and
frightul DEATH
We cannot share the fond illusions of our cor
respondent. Whatever may be " understood by the
masnest capacity it is very sure that the capacities
| of lawyers, judges and jurors would be severely
taxed with the solution of the inevitable question
10y What rs a tippling-hOuse ?" Is league
MaloIes porterhous a horse of that color
If yes, clearly, is the widow Mulrooneys grocery
established primarily for the diffusion of mackere
and matches, pork chops and potatoes, but which
occ sonaly allays the mportunate thirst of Gus.
| toner with wee drop of the cratur-to be ranked
in the same prescribed category If yes, shall we
place Hans Stockholders lager beer saloon within
| the incrimnated LIST or without it Ia Staggers
& Skinrum's Wholesale hquOr-store tipping.
house, just because glasses OF liquor are dispensed
therein to expectant purchasers of barrels and
pipes of the JOY giving fluid, some OF whom conclude
not to take BARREL but insist on paying for what
they have imbbedl Ii the porter-house is tip
EliDg-house, what say you to the basement bar
room of siI-story hotel In short, who shall say
where reputable selling and drinking ends and tip
ping begins Is it solely because ours is not the
meanest capacity" that We cannot pretend to de-
eide what is and what IS not tppling-housei
No; the ssle Of Intoxicating Beverages is right