The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-03-29
The Illinois Temperance. Law.

Iue 0e0erai Assembly OF the State
of Illinois passed, and the Governor
approved, in January of the present
| year, law for the regulation of the
sale Of ardent spirits, which seems to
US to be SO eminently wise that we
regret that a lack of spaces sforbids US
| to present more than an abstract of it.
Fhe essential provisions are these !:
Q.) No man may sell liquor without
q license, and no, man, shall have a
license who will not give bond in the
penal sum Of 5000, with two good
securities, to repay all damages that
may arise from either selling or CIV
ing away such liquor. (2.i No liquor
shall be sold to minors or to persons
either intoxicated or In the habit of
becoming intoxicated. (3.), All places
where intoxicating liquors are sold
contrary to law shall be shut up and
abated rs public nuisances, Al Any
man who, causes the intoxication sOf
another, with or without a license,
shall pay a reasonable compensation
to the person who takes care of the
inebriate, to be recovered in an action
Of debt. (5.1 Every person who is in.
jured, IN any tcdy, by any intoxicated
person, shall have, right of action
against any man who caused the in
tOxication in Whole or tn part, and
against the owner or owners of the
building in which the sale took
place a married woman having the
same right to bring suits, and to con-
troll the same and the amount re-
covered, as afeDagae- sole. The remain
ing provisions relate mainly to the
operation of those we have given, and
need not be alluded to beyond the
fact that one of them declares the
giving away of liquors to envade the
provisions of the act shall be held to
be an unlawful selling. Hj sli q ''i
There is i'm this law the fullest re-
eognition of the right of men to sell
ardent spirits, and of other men to
buy aud drink them. The law in
-sists, however, that only, the proper
persons, shall drink only in moderate
quantities. No minor shall have the
privilege of buying an article whose
dangers he does not understand, and
no man who has proved, by getting |
drunk, that he cannot take liquors |
with safety to himself and Others,
shall have the privilege of buying
again. Ardent spirits arefully recog.
nized as dangerous articles whose sale
cannot be tintrusted to irresponsible
parties; and as those, who sell them
make all the money there is made ON
them, and as all experience has
proved that they win sell, unless re-
stricted, without reference. to the |
damage they infiict upon the COM
munity, the law declares that not |
only they, but the. owners of the |
building they occupy with their traf-s
fic, shall be held responsible for all |
the evil consequences that follow a |
disregard of its requirements; and
that they may be proceeded against |
by any husband, wife, child, parent,
guardian, employer, or other person
who shall be injured in person or pro-
perty, or means OF support"
We are not sufficiently familiar
with thetemperance legislation of the
different States to know whether this
law is transcript of others already |
in existence, though we believe law
like this has been enacted in Ohio.
1t is, however, worthy of a fair and
full trial. OF course, all the low ele-
ments of society will go against it, as
they would against the Maine law;
but it ought to command the firm
support of every respectable and re-
sponsible member OF society, OF all
political parties. The, good people,
and the people who do not even pre-
tend to be good, but who do pretend
to be lovers of order and of the public
ought to agree to leave
this question out of politics entirely,
and unite upon it for an experiment
that shall last at least ten years. Let
no obstacles be thrown in the way of
its fullest execution. There is no op-
preston in it. No man for whom /
two good men are not willing to be
has any right to deal out
liquors. 1t oppresses no.
body to keep such men out Of busi-
ness; and it oppresses no land
lord to deprive him of tenants
pests sin the community.
''The People of the State of illinois,
simply say to dealers: 1--WE will
license you to sell liquors, but you
shall not sell to our boys, or, to un-
fortunates whom you have already
and you shall make no man
III you do, we will hold you
and your landlords responsible for all
the damages, of every possible kind;
and if you cannot find bendsmen who
will be responsible for your loyalty to
the law, then you are not good enough
to sell liquors at all. We trample on
no mans rights, and we purpose to
maintain our own."i .l.t.-t.I
: Let the people of Illinois stand
squarely up to the position they have
i'm this case, and it will drive
liquor out of every small town of the
State, and confine, its, sale in large
towns to quarters that will give very
little Inconvenience to the public. 1t
will take pluck and persistence to do
this, but the law Is thoroughly de
on every ground, and ought
10 be maintained. If the good and
people of the State unite
10 stand by it, it will be maintained.
DIR. J. G.IHolland, in Scri6ner's for
AprI. l.
Solid Natter In the MIX Of Animals.
( E9F-l .a.. H9fsso.