The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1876-07-21
SENTENCE or sALooN>KEErERs.

SENTENCE or SALOON>KEEPERS.
Hon. n. NJ. Hubbard, district
Judge of the Eighth Judicial Dis
trict of Iowa, in passing sentence
upon some liquor dealers for viola
ton of the prohibitory laws of the
State said;
"While there are greater crimes
known to the law which are punish |
able with great severity, there are
none which involve more of those
qualities known as despicable means
ness and audacity than the selling OF
Intoxicating liquors.
"There is something in the TAX
ing of human life by violence so in
Simultaneous that it shocks and terri
ties the minds OF all, and yet we look
upon the man who takes human life
quite as surely, but by slow, ling
ering process-if not without con-
domination, at least with horror
You who stand before the court for
sentence are in every moral sense
murderers, and you are within the
spirit, if not the letter, guilty of
manslaughter for the law says that
whoever accelerates the death of
human being unlawfully is guilty of
the crime. Your bloated victims
upon the witness stand, and who un>
doubtedIy committed perjury to
screen you from the law, not only
abundantly testify that you are in
ducing men to commit still greater
crimes than your own.
"You still maintain the appear
ance of responsibility, but how NOR
ally leprous and scrofulous you are
inwardly; the ruin, poverty and
idleness which you are inhicting up
on this community declare from the
house tops: You are living in idle
ness and eating the bread of orphans
watered with widows tears, you are
stealthily killing your victims and
numbering the peace and industry of
the community, and thereby con-
verting happy, industrious homes
into misery, thriitless poverty and
rags. You are sowing the seeds of
ignorance, idleness AMI want, among
the generations to come.
"Anxious wives and mothers
watch and pray in tears nightly
with desolate hearts for the coming
home of your victims whom you are
Turing with the wics and smiles of
the devil into midnight debauchery.
"In fine, one can have no ade-
quate conception of cateract until
he has seen Niagara, nor of the ter
rible fury aud grandeur of storm
in mid-ocean until he has witnessed
one; so no one can know the utter
degradation and total depravity to
which his species can be brought
until he looks upon the desolate
ruin caused by your helish traffic.
"You are persistent, defiant law
breakers; and shamelessly boast
that in defiance of the law and moral
sense Of the community, you will
continue in your wicked and crimi~
nal practices.
at has therefore now become the
imperative duty of this Court to let
fall upon you SO heavily the arm Of
the law that you shall either be
driven from your nefarious traffic or
ruined in your fortunes or wicked
prosperity. You have become a
stencil to the nostrils Of the commun>
iry, and all good men are praying
that you be speedily reformed or
summarily destroyed. BY the prov
idence of God and the favor of His
cour, these prayers shall be speedily
answered by signal and exact JUS
tice for your crimes. This Court
will feel a proud satisfaction in TAX
ing from you by law your Ill gotten
gains and giving it to common school
fund Of this county, where, let US,
hope, it will assist in educating the
rising youth to shun your vices and
wicked practices.
And finally, let me entreat you,
if you are not lost to every senti
ment Of humanity, to desist from
your criminal vagabond traffic and
betake yourselves to some honest
calling for a livelihood and you
may yet become virtuous, useful
citizens, and entitled to the respect
Of a Christian community; while if
you persist in this way your ruin is
certain, and yoa will receive, as yon
deserve, the execration of mankind
you may think that the sentence
of the Court is harsh and unjustly
severe, but the Cour, assures you
that, compared with your crimes
and the desolation you have already
brought upon the community, it is
mild in the treme."-Nerak Er
pOReHt.
Midway Lodge communication
will annear in next issue Crowd