The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-12-24

to the strict letter of the law, if they were
fully p detected in the privileges for which
they pay their money.
INEBRIATE ASYLUM.
Every saloon-keeper in the State of Indi-
ana is man having good moral character.
So says the law. All other dealers in liq-
uors may have a good moral character,
but there is no legal record of it. The law
does not require that the ordinary dealer
should have good moral character Ii he sells
from quart to hogshead it is not necessary
that he should have any moral character.
He usually has money enough to preclude
the necessity of it. By this admission the
State admits that there is no use making laws
to govern a man who has plenty of money
and wants to sell great quantities of whisky,
wine or beer. Now that the State law recog-
nizes that saloon-keepers are all moral men,
it should not allow too much temptation to
be thrown in their way, lest they should be-
come immoral and corrupt. What is the
greatest sin retail liquor-dealer is most ex-
posed to? I answer, selling liquor to drunk
ards To do this is unlawful, and
sinful but what is the good saloon-keeper TO
do? A poor drunkard Tor rich one) comes in
in the morning all torn up from his nights
debauch, looking a little worse for the wear,
but sober. He calls for his cocktail, and of
course the fluid dispenser makes him one,
and the drunkard is braced up and feels bet
ter, and will be ready for his breakfast after
he has had two or three more. If he has
business to attend to he will begin it, and,
with the aid OF a few more nips during the
day, he will be ready for another nights
spree when evening has come.
This will last as long as his
money holds out. But when the
drunkard's money is gone, do you suppose
the cocktail-vender is going square back on
the man? Temperance lecturers charge that
they do, but it is not SOY The old sport will
be given his occasional nip by the dealer,
and his friends will give him a few more,
and thereby keep his spirits up long after he
is dead broke. But time comes when the
old drinker becomes a beat on the saloon
keeper and bore to his friends, and his
drinks are shut off and the drunkard gener-
ally gets mad and abuses everybody, especial
ly his wife Gf he has one) because she won't
put up" and then the station-house, and
lastly the poor-house. AT what stage in this
drunkard's career could he have been saved
from financial, intellectual and moral ruin?
| answer, at the time that his drinking lost
him his situation or his business standing,
and 1 hold that he could have been saved if
we had in this State an inebriate asylum as
a State institution. When a man gets drunk
and exposes himself to the gaze OF the pub
lie. thereby insulting the people, they have
q right to demand his removal. He has dis
graced himself and insulted the public, for
which he should be punished and the insult
he has put upon society atoned for 1t is
wrong to put the blame OF his acts upon sa-
loon-koepers. He was legally entitled to
drink up to the time he branded himself
as unfit for the privileges of a gentleman.
The dealer would not nor should
not refuse him dllok up to
that time. The State has permitted saloons
10 exist for the benei.5 OF dealers in liquor
and the accommodation of the public, and
when q citizen abuses any of the privileges
or rights of citizenship the State should hold
him guilty and punish him for it. Inebriate
asylums have been erected and maintained
in several of the States, notably the one at
Binghamton, New York, where men have
been put by their friends and others have
voluntarily gone who have had ungoverna-
BILE appetites for liquor. There is no ques-
ton of alcoholism being disease. 1t can be
cured by treatment. It has been done. The
proper place is an asylum or hopital. The
great trouble has been with all in
situations of this kind that inebriates
Public drunkenness is a crime under the
laws of Indiana punishable by fine and i'm
prisonment. No greater cruelty can be prac-
ticed on a human being than to lock him up
after protracted spree without administer
ing to his bodily and mental condition. The
sudden stoppage of excessive drinking when
long practiced almost invariably produces
delrium tremens The saloon-keepers of In
diana pay to the State annually 100000 If
the making of drunkards is chargeable to
! distilIers, brewers, and wholesale and retail
liquor dealers let them be taxed for the sun
port and maintenance of drunkards and
their families till the drunkard is cured.
No one should be allowed to manufacture or
/ deal in Intoxicating liquors in the State with
out paying tax for so doing. Let this tax
be appropriated for the erection and main
| tenance of inebr:ate hospitals throughout
the State, say one in each congressional dis
trict, This, in my mind, will solve the prob
| lem, and relieve from incessant abuse men
engaged in the liquor trade, and place them
upon an equal footing with all good citizens,
| a position which think nineienths of them
! hold at this day temperance howlers to the
contrary Notwithstanding. T. A. DEAN.