The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1871-03-14
Liquor LAWS.


Feb. 2Sth was an article entitled "New
Temperance Law in Ohio" in which one
of the provisions of that law, together
with some instances of its practical work.
ing, was given. have not seen the Ohio
Law, and have no knowledge of its char
acter except from the article named, but
one section Of the law, as therein quoted
makes both the vender of intoxicating
drink, and the owner Of the premises on
which it is sold, liable for any injury Of
personal property, or means of support
which any one shall receive for the sale
and use of such drink.
Now l believe this to be q lust and
practicable application of law against this
greatest social crime. 1t is eminently
just that the rumsellers should pay the
damages that arise from the sale Of his
poison, and that the owner of the premises
should also share the liability. Both are
accumulating money at the expense Of
the inebriatc and his family, the one U.S.
ually obtains rents which his property
would not command for respectable bust
ness, the other rapidly accumuates money
while he pays extraordinary rent:
Not only should the family and employ
cr of the inebriate have this redress, but
the municipality or state as well. The
great mass of pauperism and ruin arises
from rum and when the pauper or the
criminal has become public charge, the
support of the one and legal prosecution
of the other should be at the expense of
him who, for pecuniary gain, has brought
the one to poverty and the other to crime.
Our own law is on the whole good
one, and all it needs for the vindication Of
its efficiency and usefulness, is a measure
OF integrity among professional temper
ancc men that shall be superior to both
political and pecuniary interests. A few
resolute men can enforce the law in any
town,and yet it is left almost entirely unen-
forced as regards its best features, and
the umseller-the great "Criminal Of the
Period, goes unwhipped of justice be-
cause Of the general Indifference that pre-
walls with regard to their peculiar crimes.
Let the wretched wife with her beg
CARED children be permitted to stand be-
fore the tribunal, and demand by the au-
thority Of the law, that he who has rob-
bed her Of her husbands love and labor
shall clothe and feed her helpless children,
and he will learn to respect her plea when
with broken heart she pleads with him
to withhold the cup of poison from her
husbands lips.
One feature of our law, claims atten-
tion in this connection as exhibiting an
unjust discrimination against the wretch
ed inebriatc. 1t does not punish man
for drinking, but for being drunk. Not
for the voluntary act, but for the invol-
untary state. 1t offers no menace to the
moderate drinker," who boasts that he
can drink or not, as he peases; it utters
about to take the rst Gals ag Since hIs EhsG Fa
covery from recent spree, when if at all
he has power to heed the warning and
resist temptation, but after he has done
what the law does not forbid, ,and vertigo,
insanity and paralysis ensue, the law
draggs him off to Jail until he recovers,
and then fines him five dollars, not for
taking the poison but for allowing it to
make him sick, while the magistrate who
administers the law, may be carrying as
much and more than the criminal, only
the "Devil don't throw him down"
Now this is all wrong. Mr.. Cough has
truthfully said what every poor drunkard
in the land will confirm, viz the moder-
ate drinker could stop drinking if he
would, the drunkard acouM stop ifhe couW
The drunkard's irresistible appetite is the
symptoms of a real and terrible disease,
induced during and by the process of
moderate drinking, and its power over
Mediate result. Now if the rumdrnker is
to be subjected to penalty, let it be
while by his own confession he has power
to abstain and yet by his moderation"
is leading others in the way of sin; and
above all, if liquor dealers will persist in
robbing men of their money and manhood
let them at least be charged for the sup
port of the families they have made desc
late l.. 5. WALKER.