The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1877-05-11
THE sALOON.KEEPERS
Judge Cranmer's OpiuiOn that They
violated no Ordinance I'm Keeping
<N-a.~ IAnhav

open Ou "ouhay.
City of wheselins uun,c,pal Court of
Henry Biamenberg. Wheeling.
Bye consent of parties it is agreed that
the decision arrived At in this cause shall
govern and determine similar questions
involved in fifteen other causes against
different defendants charged with the
commission of the same Otfense with
which the defendant stands Changed, now
pending on the police side OF said
court.
The proceedings in this case are on
complaint that the defendant has vic.
lated the second section of an ordinance
entitled, "An ordinance In relation to
ordinaries and coffee houses within the
city Of Wheeling" 1t being chapter IS
on page 202 OF the printed ordinance
book, and which reads rs follows:
SECTION 2. 1t shall not hereafter be
lawful for any person to charge, claim or
receive any pay or compensation for
drink or eatables furnished in this city
TO be used, or which shall be used ut the
place where the same are kept or furnish
cd; or at any house, booth, arbor, stall or
pla 20 kept rs place of public resort by
the person furnishing such drinks or
etables, or by any one in bis or her em-
ployment, or Interested in such hl-iness
with him or her, without having first
obtained, according to the provisions OF
this ordinance, license to keep u coffee.
h use, and every person offending herein
Q ali forfeit and pay to the city toenty
d,liars tor every such otfense, &c"
SEC. Is. of the same ordinance pre-
scribes the form OF the license to be as
follows:
City of Wheeling, IS, A. B.,
having paid to G. D. Treasurer 8
toe tax due to said city, on this licen SO
and to +. F., sheriff OF OHIO county Tor
other officer by law authorized to receive
the same, IS the case may beg - dol
lara, the tax due to the State of West
Virginia on the same, and having dellv
cred to me the proper bond, is hereby
licensed to keep an ordinary house OF
private entertainment or coffee house Ell
the first or second class, as the case may
BEL IN this city, until the - day of
- next, subject to the conditions and
regulations prescribed in the ordinances
of this city which is to be duly signed
BY the clerk.
By the 33d section it is provided as
follows:
"SEC. 33. All licenses for coffee houses
shall expire and be OF no further effect on
the first Monday in May next succeeding
the date thereof" SC.
These are the principal sections and
parts of sections which enter into ard
become material so far as the law appi-
cable TO this case is concerned.
The counsel for the defendant, prelim-
may to the hearing of the Gaze made
mo,lou to qussh the proceeding, based
upon the insutficiency OF the allegations
contained in the summons as we'll as q
variance between it and the terms Of the
ordinance.
1t is unnecessary for us to examine
these objections, not, however, because
they are unworthy OF consideration, but
because we can arrive at a
satisfactory conclusion more rapidly
by considering single question OF
construction which the legal AS
pect of the case presents, and which in
our opinion involves the whole merits of
the controversy. Here, in passing how
ever. it will not be inappropriate to ad
vert briefly to the facts elected upon the
examination of the witnesses, one of
whom stated that he went into the estsb-
lishment and bought cigar for which
he paid-that be did not buy nor pay
for the beer which he drank, and that
there was no understanding between the
VII ness aud the proprietor, nor any one
in the employ OF the latter, that the
same was by way of compensation or
psy for the drink of beer. Another
witness, the barkeeper of the defendant,
states, however, that if the former witness
had not bought the cigar he would not
have given him the drink OF beer. Show
ing that while the former had no under.
standing with the latter, the latter was
alive to obtaining his Quid pro qao and
to our mind at least showing an attempt
t. evade the provisions Of the ordinance
for If such or similar subterfuges and de-
vices can be resOrted to legltimately and
successfully on one occasion, they might
be on all occasions, and the city DO there
BY deprived wholly OF this source OF rev. |
enue So that we conclude, 80 far |
a. the facts in this instance are con-
cerned, they show the commits
sion of an offence under the provisions
of the second section of the ordinance in
. case contemplated by that section.
But is the present such case rs is con-
by this last named section, or
in other words, was this case in which
the party, contrary to the provisions of
that section, charged, claimed or received