The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1881-04-12
BILLIARDS AND NONSENSE.

That p!overbislly sharp individual,
the "Philadelphis lawyer" skilled in
deciphering intricate legal PROPOSE
tions and untangling and making
plain the gnsrled, knosty. and mys
terious verbiage OF the law, may be
able to comprehend the various pro-
positions, assertions, pleadings and
misunderstanding 10 which Chief
Justice Hunter INDUCES IN the three
column opinion on the billiard ordi-
nance to be found in this issue of the
HERALD. We say lawyer from the
Quaker City might be able to inter
pref the judicial cipher, bot we ques
ton if any of the Salt Lake attorneys
can intslligentIy follow his honor,
admitting that his honor has gone
intelligently. The ordinary lsyman
WAdes through the words, puts down
the opinion, and in the language of
the public inquiries, "WhEt is he
trying to get through himself" His
honor may be deeply learned in the
lava talented and eminsns iurist,
but if the billiard opinion is fair
specimen be certainly cannot be
placed as a successful writer of Eng
lish. for a more bungling use of the
language has seldom been made in 3
legal paper. We are able to gather
from the ruling. however. that the
petitioners in the habeas corpus ease
1.-THE violators of the billiard ordinanos)
have been discharged from the GUS
tody of the municipal authoritieP;
also that the court holds some por-
ton OF the billiard ordinance to be
void, but what part is OF non
effect is not quite clear.
Neither is it strikingly plain whether
the City Council has the power uD.
der the charter 70 replace the volo
provisions by others, or must apply
to the Legislature for an enlargement
or better definition of its powers. If
we correctly understand what the
judge has attempted to say, it lie that
the municipality may license, tax,
regulate and suppress billiard tables,
but cannot license the owners of the
tables. II this be what his honor &C.
tually intended to hold, it is confus
ing, to cay the least. The chief
Justice ought now to be invited by the
Council to draft the form of a paper
for licensing, regulating, suppressing.
etc.. billiard tables. 1t would prob.
ably read something like this:
"Whereas one Phelan & Oollander
Tor Brunswick, as the case may bel
billiard table No. - bss made sDph-
cation for O license to let billiards be
played upon it, and said table having
a good moral character, and promls-
ing no observe the provisions Of the
ordinance 10 relation to billiards,
etc., q license is hereby granted. etc. "
It will appear to those acquainted
With cur city fathers. thEs the latter
will not know how to get at the busi-
ness of taxing, regulating snd licens-
ing billiard tables, hence some Dril-
liant legal luminsry ike the chief
justice should be applied TO.
Seriously, Judge Hupter's decision
may be based on soupd law; but if 30,
the sound law il the premises IS
conloundsd nonsense. That PROPOSE
ton will be msintsined by any per
son OF ordinary intelligence. The
Legislature intended TO convey upon
the City Council the power or author
ity to 10 certain things in reference
to billiards. The lawyers even have
not clSined that tbs power was not
conveyed, but his honor, through q
course of reasoning that seems child
lab, (not intended disrespeotfully) ar.
rives at the conclusion that the
authority did not pass to the city.
The language OF the charter is a.
plain and ineligible as it is possible
to make it. Does snyone-Judge
Hunter excepted-preieDd to say that
the Legislature, when it inserted in
the charter the words concerning
billiards was joking with the muni-
cipality, leading the corporation to
behave il was getting something, when
in reality it was being made game OF ?
II the provision means anything. it
means what it says, and if !. ssys
anything it is that the corporation
has the authority to do Just Whstit was
trying to do by the adoption and en-,
forcemeDt OF the ordinance in rela-
ton TO billiards. II there were uD-
reasonable provisions in the ordi-
nance, provisions that the charter did |
not empower the Council TO impose,
that would be different matter; but
to declare that tbs city has no power
to license, regulate, etc., billiards,
seems to US nonsense. although, rs
remarked above, it may IN fact be
good Law.
The HERALD is not quite certain
that it fully comprehends Judge Hun
ter's decision, but if it does, the
purport OF the ruling is that the city
can do nothing in the way OF
regulating billiards. OF course it can
collect no license or tax from the
tables, nor can it regulate or suppress
9 table, and his honor says il can do
nothing with the proprietors OF tables.
The inference is that billiard halls
may be conducted By anybody and
everybody without interference on
the part of the municipal authorities;
that the halls may be kept open
C--Iov. % kLa r,laaenra of |.