News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1883-09-20

The law of Massachusetts very wisely
prohibits the sale of Intoxicating liquors
to minors for their own use. the use of
their parents or that of any other person.
Until the formation of the Citizens Law
and Order League. 4 little more than one
year since, this provision of law, al
though admitted by almost everybody to
be wise, just an | eXpedient, was CON
stantly violated by most of the saloon
keepers in the State. 70 see little chill
Gren, boys and girls from five years old
and upward, going in and out of the sa-
looms of Boston. was Il common thing one
year ago. There prevailed an idea that
while it was very wrong and dangerous
to the community to sell children intOX-
icating liquor to drink in the saloons, it
was something different to sell them such
liquor to be carried away for the use Of
their parents or other persons; but II the
reader could stand as the writer often
has. and see boys and girls under ten
years of age pushing their way through
the crowd of half drunken and wholly
drunken men and women to get up to the
bar and then out again. through the same
disgusting, demoralizing crowd; if he
could listen to the vile and obscene Ian
guage with which the ears of these ba-
bies were polluted while in this den Of
imfamy, he would feel that the children
forced into such communicating surround
ingS had scarcely one chance i'll thou
sand of growing up to be benefit to
themselves or the community: and then
if he could follow these children, as the
writer has done, and see them slpplnS
this liquor from the can or pail. or pitch
er which they carried, and could 90 still
further and follow them into Their mIser-
able homes and tiud there the father or
the mother. or perhaps both, III Oeastiy
state of INVESTIGATION. and see the Absence,
not only of the luXuries of life, hut OF
almost every one of its comforts, he
would feel that the law of the Common
wealth is none too severe. and that 1t
should no longer be allowed to remain
dead letter on the Statute books of the
State. But this is by no means all. AT
the time OF the formation of the Law and
Order League there were drinking sa-
looms in Boston where most OF the pa
irons were boys under ID years OF age;
and these children were entlced to play
games of chance, the stake being the
drink; and the writer has seen many
boys, not II wears CT age. intoxicated.
Officers of the Law and Order League
listen daily to heart rending stories Of
children who are led astraY, and they
are glad to feel that their efforts during
the past year have contributed not lit
tie to diminishing the sale of intoXicat-
ing liquors to minors. They have prose
cuted between three and four hundred
| liquor dealers, very many of them for
making sales to minors, although this
particular violation of the law is very
much less common than it was year
ago, there is too much of it still. Faith
ers and mothers, mindful of the disgrace.
are unwilling to make complaints and to
give their evidence. The Law and Order
League is steadily at work, bending
every effort to bring about an observance
of the law in this particular, doing all
that it is able to do with the means at its
command. 1t needs the sympathy, the
cooperation, the substantial aid of all
good citizens who wish for the future
well being of those who constitute the
rising generation of to-day. The achieve
ments of the league in tins direction en-
! title it to the hearty support of all who
have the good of mankind at heart.
Save the boys" is the WatchWOrd of the
organization, and this Watchword should
| find Il hearty response i'll the breast of
every father and mother in the land.