Connecticut western news., 1878-02-28
RUM SELLING.
BY REV. II. 8. BALL.

~Ans AsDAA s-1 Wonb tO wPC0M tO sAS 'eaders of the NEWS, on the nature of mean the crime of rum-selling, with or without legal sanction. God has settled the right and wrong of the liquor rade, and no human legislation can change His law. am not heated by fanaticism am not urged to this criticism by any feeling of vengeance which might sway the judgment ;n view of the one hundred thou sand graves this criminal annually digs; graves that hold those once innocent and as deeply loved as our own cherished ones. It is, admit, difficult to speak of rum-sell- ing without prejudice; for nowhere on earth is there another business which com pines Ao many of the prominent forms of evil as rum m-seling. But am too old to be- come excited, so I shall speak calmly but frankly. Let mercy, with tender heart, look upon the evils of this traffic, and she will weep that human being can become so hard, and fall so low as to live on the miseries of helpless women and children so unfortunate as to have for husband and father, the da'unkard Let justice look upon this traffic, and with drowning brow she erects gallows as an indication of the penalty the traffic deserves.
 Rum-selling is evil, and only evil, and as a criminal we will try him, not before any legal tribunal, nor by any ordinary court, but by the ideas. the aspirations and the tendencies of this grand, historic and pro gressive age.
 summon the criminal to the bar of pub lie opinion, to answer to the charge pre- ferred by the current thought of the times. He shall be fairly tried. The charge is: 'The destroyer of all good; humanity $ deadly foe" Let us arrange the court. Here on the one hand are the legal minds of Litchfield county and we speak with special reference to our old friends, Judge Granger, Hon. G. w. Feet, and D. J.War ner-and better judges of the penalty which should be inflicted upon crime, there IS uot in the state of Connecticut, nor in the Unit ed States. These men have studied the na ture of crime, the majesty and necessity oi law. They have grasped the grand thought of law, as Having her seat in the bosom of God her voice the harmony of the uni verse;" and studied the necessity of punish ment for the guilty. They know, if any body does, the value of t stimony and the weight it should have in every case. They will judge righteously. If there be an CT TOT in the indictment; if the testimony be lrrelavent, or the trial unfairly conducted they will correct the error, reject the testi- mony, arrest the progress of the trial Surely no useful business need fear the verdict of such men.
 The jury before which this criminal is tt be tried is the people. No challenge car lie against them, because the prisoner at tho bur has always claimed to be the people, friend and helper.
 We call our first witnesses. The refol m CTS of the times, some of them, have hat very intimate relations with the prisoner
 Ney knoao him. They are honest hearted earnest men q little nasty in judgmeR perhaps, sometimes harsh in depunciation because impatient of wrong, but firm friends of every effort to benefit society and elevate humanity. They are men o the most advanced thought of the age They are snxiously seeking to dscovel some way ir which to lift humanity to { nobler plane of life to check the curren of evil, and to infuse into the sin burdene( soul the sufferers from poverty or circum- stances, higher aim, a nober and true manhood and womanhood. Surely noth- ing that is not wholly bad need fear tho testimony of such witnesses. They lool only at the central thought if that be good DO matter fol the evil that grows out of it .hcir approval is certain.
 Here are other witnesses. Protesting Christians good men and women. They have proved their goodness by years of un- requited toll for the bentfit of others. Tbci great effort has been and is to make tho people selfreliant, self-respectful aud self restraining. They will be true to any men or business, or law that promises tt strengthen the moral sentiments, or add tc the intelligence or wealth of the state.
 Now we have the witnesses and the pris- oner confronting each other. The indict- ment has beeh read-"IHe destroyer of dl good; Aumanaty's aoorst enemy" and tho plea, Mot guilty" has been catered Wt shall combine and condense the testimony of these witnesses.
 l. We prove the prisoner guilty of hy- pocrisy, in the false pretense that lega right to sell rum is necessary to the keep ing of public house for the accommoda- tion of the travelling public. It is proyee that the profit of rum-selIing comes, no from the travelling public, but from Il os' living near, and who are scduced from tn, path of virtue by the false promises O those who sell, and the false appearance O. those who have just begun their downward course, the end of which is inevitably cIim, and pauperism. In proof, the witnesses present the records of our criminal courts and the testimony of the keepers of ou penitentlaries and pauper asylums.
 9. Another count in the indictment, i: that the criminal wilfully subverts the bes ideas of the nineteenth century, and chang es the tendency of our institutions, subst tuting depravity for morality, poverty fol wealth, ignorance fer intelligence, dissipa ton and debauchery for sobriety ard chas tity, infdelity and crime for religion and virtue, and the literature of Thomas Paine and Voltaire for that of the Bible and Chris. tiani,y. And further if there be any char actcristics of the age, which distinguishes it from all preceding ages, it is deeper reverence and higher love for all true