The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1869-08-25

Il
Izen.-sIIe Is Arrested and TAX
EN- to Cleveland. aF
On Friday evening of last week, q
Deputy United States Marshal ar
rived in our village armed with q
warrant from the United States Cons
missioner, Mr.. b White, for the ar
rest Of L. A. Brunner, Esq, one Of
our well known druggists, for what
they termed violation of the revenue
laws of the United States .....-.
| It appears that at the last session
of that beautiful and delectabIe insti>
tuition commonly called Congress,
| it passed what they called 9 law,
which. among other things. requires
| every person selling tobacco to have
1t stamped at the rate Of thirty-tWo
cents to the pound, under g penalty
| of 81 900 and six months imprisOn-
ment, which was to take effect in
February Of this year, and although
it was printed with the laws of Con-
gress, never has been distributed nor
,eireIllAtea aRaongst the business men
.of the coN munity \ helt ltk1ef y 4Fe the
FeRAhHe hfieers Of thal eovdIdndent
ever taken any pains to inform the
business men Of its existence, and
hence many Of our best posted and
most and grocery
men did ne eiHndefstaAd the provis-
ions Of the law.
By some means, however, the.
Commissioner, clerks and deputies
in the United States Marshal's ONCE
did find out that, there was such q
law in existence, and in order to
make some money for themselves,
procured theserViee5 Of 01tS of Akttetr
A.s,
lPFeteadedSt0 have been soldier, and
the Northern District of the State, uu-
der the guise of q book -peddler, for
| the purpose of entrapping the unWa
~ merchants into a violation of the
law, and then to turn intormer and
procure their arrest. ..
They found one e. @. LelOiS, whose
na me will hereafter be a synonym
for i3lfdnly, base enough for their vile
purposes He travelled through all
the counties of the district under the
pretence of selling book, and visited
Rllthe business hbuses that sold j ci-
gars, tobacco, perfumery, safdines,
and such articles aSWere required to
be- stamped! and SSier6i Ae found
anything Of that Kind unstannped,
insisted upon vbaying one package
aud if the person from whom he
bought happened to be q Democrat.
he went before this man White and
made oath agaihst him for Violating
the revenue laws, caused him to-. be
arrested and taxed to- Cleveland be-
fore the man. who issaed the war
rant. 1- ..- .-
Upon the road TO Cleveland, how
ever, the Marshal, who made the ar
rest. was very ready to suggest that
there had been good many. arrests
of this kind for similar Offenses, and
that all Of the UiciilnS had got off up
on payment of costs, !" &c. WellTt the
Marshal arrives at Cleveland with
his victim, and very pompOusly y
shows him into the efiice of this man
White, o. 8. Commissioner, where
ne finds three or four other victims
awaiting their turns to be relieved OF
what spare money they have. There
he is also confronted by q. S. Dis
trict Attorney who makes g. great
many inqairies;as to the gistzOf the
transaction, and preteDdS to beRreAt-
ly in earnest in seeing that the
revenue laws are strictly enforced !.
But in this case he Is satisfied that
the victim did dot intend to defraud
EA0 0ONCIAAhCABg anu pAOPOoCo IneLS
if ne will pay the costs and a small
fee (say IS or $10) to the ,informer he
will dismiss the case. And what else
can the unfortunate victim do dbut
fork OVer. Here Ehe is arrested for
pretended crime, the penalty Of which,
In case of conviction, Is 81 900 and
six months in prison. The informed
Is one of the confedeFates, and is en-
titled TO hsifthe flne. The Assistant
| District, attorney, who Is also son
of the u. S. Judge, Is the'prosecutor
and there may have been an sunln-
tentfOnal technical VIoIdtio1 of the
law. and with this 5eombinstion
Aga1nst q man, he mlRhti as well
come down with the stamps frstIEs
last. Rhey can doTwith him just as
they please. .2--..A
So Mr.. Drummer, seeing the dilem-
ma, chose. as he supposed between
the two eHils,l and paid all they de
manded OF him and FeAder, what
do you suppose the cost bin adeoHi
by this deiectabte, party was In this
easel? Remember MEs BrunneE had
sold 0fls ten cen. pGeLz1ge ofl;tobaccO
that he had had in his store three
i years, and that had already paid one
revenue tax without stamping il
with. q, two cent stamp. Well they
only charged him the small sum ol
sos as.
But you will exclaim, how in God't
name could they ever make oui
snch cost bill as that?1 Here 1t is
a 4