The Portland daily press., 1879-02-06
Rumsellers- JaiI-Fines,

In the PRESS of the End Of January, is an
abstract OF the report Of the late County At
torney, by which it is seen that when the rum
sellers began to be put into jail on the second
conviction, the receipts of fines into the county
treasury began to fall off Some persons infer
therefore that mprisoning rumsellers is 1iuan-
cally unwise.
This dimnuti0n of fines is occasioned by the
faulty drafting of the statute. 1t is provided
that on the second and every subsequent con-
victicn the convicts shall pay one hundred dol
lars and costs and shall be imprisoued in the
common Jail at hard labor three months. They
are also to stand committed until the payment
shall be made. But by the free and easy man-
ner of the courts in dealing with the law, they
are discharged in thirty days. Consequently
the fine is never paid because the rumssllers
prefer to spend that short time in Jail, we'll fed,
well lodged, well warmed, to the payment of
about $l3O fine and COSTS They are boarded at
the expense of the taxpayers aud save at the
rate of about $1560 year!
There is q very short and sure Wav to chanoe
all that, to the great benefit of the county treas
ury, viz: First offense $100 and costs and six
months in Jail with hard labor; in default of
payment six months more In Jail, always at
hard labor. On the second conviction 5000 and
costs and one year in Jail; in default of nav
ment one year more in jail-alwsys at hard Ia
bor. That will bring the fne and costs into the
treasury every time, though it would not stop
these fellows from selling whiskey and beer.
In rder to do that we must have it: On the
third and every subsequent conviction,
n,
said to his patisnt when he gave hi n a quart of
fish oil for az emetio. Rumseliing is fthe oil
gaptc crime of crimss" That was said upon
the floor of the United States Senate some
years since, and no one has even attempted to
deny it.
John Wesley said, century and q quarter
ago: "Rumsellers ara poisoners general; their
gain is the blood Of the people; neither does
their eye pity nor spare: they drive the people
to hell like sheep" Old DR.. Lyman Beecher
said, more than forty years ago: 81 defy any
man to prove that rumsellers are not murder
ers." The London Times says: "Add together
all the miseries generated 10 our time by war,
famine, and pestilence, the three great scourges
of mankind; they do not exceed those that
spring from this one cause"
Lord Chesterfield in 172S in a debate in the
House of Lords on the Gin Bill'' said: "Let
US at length, my Lords, secure the people from
these fatal draughts by bursting the yas that
contain them. Let us check these artists in
human slaughter ter'-runsellers-"who have re-
conciled their conntrymen to sickness and ruin,
and spread over the pitfalls of debauchery such
bats as cannot be resisted" Canon Farrar.
that eminent and eloquent English clergyman.
in recent sermon in Westminster Abbsy. said
"Our people have become what they never
we're bsfore, cruel and inhuman These ac-
cursed liquors, so easily to be had, have changed
their very nature"
The eminent Judge Hill of Birmingham.
England, In charge to the grand jury said
Whenever way we turs, whatever We pro-
pose TO do for the benefit of society, to amelior-
ate the condition of mankind. the liquor traffic
starts up and blocks the way :" The New York
Tribune of April IA, 1876, said: "rhe man who
sells diseased milk ought to know and feel that
he is dealing in an article which will Certainly
carry disease into many households. Being
conv need of this let him consider whether if
he continues in the infamous business he il
q the eye of the moral law anv
better than murderer. Where diseased milk
makes one person sick the liq1or traffic kills a
thousand.
The Manchester Examiner and Times. a
great and influential English paper, November
3O, 1874, SAID: - both IN point of law
and common sense man must be taken to
INTEND the natural copsegaeaces of his ac.
ions. From John Wesley's day to our time,
10 man mas even attempted to deny that rum
sellers are 'poisoners genersP'; that they are
murderers': that they are "artists in human
ssIisughter;' that the liquor traffic is ruly the
gigantic crime of Crimes" Is year in
state Prison or work on the streets In chaia
gang too much for the wretch who commits
such crimes deliberately, habitually? Who
Will answer? NEAL Dow.