The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1871-07-07
THE NEW LICENSE SYSTEM


promulgated q new ordinance in regard
to licenses. Some time has been spent
in preparation, and we had right
to expect a great Improvement on the
old methods but our expections have
been wofully frustrated.
wish to comment OH that portion of
the ordinance in which our community
ia most deeply interested, and which
the friends of order had hoped would
extirpate the liquor tracfii. Physicians
and druggists of respectable standing
are to be licensed on paying $500 to
sell at retail any kind of liq uor for me-
dicinal, sacramental, mechanical and
culinary purposes. Suppose that the
unlicensed dram shops of the city are
closed, and the druggists and physicians
are given the monopoly of the liquor
traffic, everybody that is thirsty for
whisky, or ANYTHING else of an intoxi-
eating nature can get all he wants in a
strictly legal way. 81 am not well to-
day and l want a glass of whisky" and
the druggists conforming to the ordi-
nance, gives the liquor for medicinal
purposes. The drinker does not lie,
for any one with the rum thirst upon
him is most miserably sick, until he
gets his dram. He will be sick quite Of
ten during the day-really sick and the
druggist must have a hard heart to re-
sist the demand of the trembling drunk
ard, when he backs up his request with
q greenback. If the druggist tire of his
frequent visits, the drunkard can then
buy quart for culinary purposes, go
home and have q spree. He may come
often, and his family may seem to need
a great deal of liquors in their cooking,
as they certainly will, for it is bread
and meat too, and he swears that he
wants the liquors for culinary purposes.
1t is not the business of the druggist TO
accompany the drunkard home, to see
how his wife cooks.
1 have two fatal objections to this
part of the ordinance. One is, that the
license fee is too small. Amy man may
open q drug store, bring certificates of
his ability to prepare medicines, ana
then paying his $500, carry on the liq-
nor business in legal way. So long
he sells only for the purposes mention
ed in the ordinance, he must be unmo-
Tested. The fee ought to be at least
$4,000, and then only men who at least
are pecuniarily respectable can engage
in the business-which being very renu-
Ahak
nance is strictly enforced on others, and |
the dram shops will be but few.
Ny other objection is to the purpo- |
ses for which the druggist may sell. |
The ordinance might just as well have |
plainly said for any purpose. The |
drunkard Eiu of course lie, and if the
druggist engage, at all in this wicked |
traffic, he viii not too closely question
the purchaser. The ssls of liquors
hould only be allowed to such AZ pre-
sent a physician's prescription Of their
need, or for mechanical and sacrament
al purposes. For culinary purposes,
doubt, if ten gallons are used by our
women for their cooking IN year.
The ordinance further provides that
a licensed druggiRt may sell at whole
sale to any person living at a remote
from the city. Row far of,
one mile or twenty, must the dram
shop buying at wholesale in EmporiaS
beat FLORENCE, or just outside the city
limits? The ordinance does not speci-
fy. Suppose that ice wholesale store
in this city is closed, this ordinance Ii
censes half dozen druggists 70 teke its
place. We will not poison our own eik-
1sns, but have no objections to poisoning1
outsiders to any extent. OF all the dis
yuiGes which rum selling assumes to
appear like an angel of light, This is the 1
most flimsy. The hoofs and horns Sre
1ot even cOXenOd. This ordnance
must result, whatever may have been ;
he intention of its anshors, in freq rum. &
Either have no license at ah--or pnt itj
Ugh enough to restrict the traffic, and 1
;onfine the sale to those possessed of a I
,hysician's prescri ption, or actually ]
leeding alchohol for mechanical pur-
roses. JDsTITIA.