Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1868-03-10
A Singular Suit-Impeaching Witness
Honor Among Thieves.

trials before the Court last week was
that of the State against the Scoop
ers' Institute" an ill.famed institu-
ton over the way at Boscobel.--
Dewey and Bushnell for the State,
and McFall for the detense-ver,lict
for the defense.
In this case all parties in and out
Of court, the jury and lobby, the wits
nesses and everybody, were agreed
as to the character Of the institution,
yet it came out as spotless as nest
OF skunks-the latter said to be al
ways as scentless as if populated with
kittens. Indeed the entire trial APP
peared as an understood means ofad
vertising the concern at the public
expense and thus cheating tho print
ers of their just labor and dues. 1t
was declared upon oath that a Ger
tain business was carried on, at a par
ticular place, with the price OF SER
vice and by whom.
The novelty OF the thing was here:
The witness civ ng the information
sworc to the essential business Of the
institution &c, and nobody doubted
at the time or has since doubted the
general statements rs facts. Yet, a
dozen witnesses were summoned
some Of them, perhaps q majority,
patrons Of the institution, who most
all testified that said informant was
unworthy of belief on his oath And
some Of the witnesses, carrying ewes
ry sign of guilt in their faces, swore
to the actual innocence of the con.
Germ in response to every question
asked them, and yet nothing was
attempted to impeach their testimo-
ny.
In this case most Of the witnesses
seemed rather willing 20 favor the
persons Of bad morals, as though
they had axes to grind. And some
who expected TO have no grinding
seemed rather fearful of their p0pu~
larity and held back, appearing rath-
er on the side of the impeachers.
CoDsidering,it was fair parallel Of
the suits formerly instituted all over
the country for selling liquor
without license. 1t will be remem
bere6 that it was next to impossible
TO procure witnesses who would
swear to having purchased and
drank liquor at certain places, ais
though hundreds had patronised such
illegal concern. The facts were these:
Men who patroniscd unlawful insti'
tutions for making men drunk felt
in sense guilty as a party to any
crime committed by the liquor seller,
and would either refuse to swear az
all, or swear falsely--hoIding them
selves in honor bound to not tell
tales out Of the family; not only so
but to join in the using up by i'm
parchment Of all witnesses who
would go in and patronise such in
stitutions in view Of becoming wit
NOSES thereafter against them The
result was,no conviction and q thous-
and dollars cost TO the state in al,
most every case. Another result
the illegal liquor sellers were always
stronger after than before their bat,
ties, same as the case above in which
the state undertook to quash the
"Coopers Institute" and came out
second best.
The fact is, bad women and baC
whiskoy are the most unmanagabl,
institutions upon earth. They are
too, perfect ID anomalies. Th,
greater the numbers against them anC
stronger the public moral influence
the more powerful are such institu-
tions for harm Prohibition law
are certainly failures for combatir
them, and even laws for their regu
lation are hardly worth tho paper OF
which they are printed.
Last year we proposed to pa
these deviltries into the hands o
botter mon, the places of selling to b,
more respectable, but nobody agreed
with us in the proposed reform. w
still think the day is near at han,
when it viii be a practice Of wis
aud moral parties to 20 for regulat
ing some of those evils by pacin!
first class men in charge of them 70
retailing damnation by the gill, a
druggists retail their hurtful stuff
by the ounce. Al least, we thinl
some practical method will be de-
vised for dealing with them.
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