Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1884-05-03
THE SUNDAY LAW IN GAINESVILLE.

| I'VE give below the charge OF
Judge Tyler to the Grand Jury on
selling intoxicating liquors on SUM-
day and to minors. We would most
earnestly request all of our young
men to read and ponder its contents.
1t is high time that steps were ta-
ken to suppress this great and grow
ing evil 4
"Much complaint has been made
to me of late about the selling of
intoxicating liquors to persons I'M
der age, to students in the Universe
ty here, or youths employed in
some capacity whose business re-
quires their presence down town
during the day and often after
night, and it is currently reported
that there are one or more gam
bling places, kept in certain upper
rooms over saloons, into which
youths are enticed, and where they
find alone the society of the vicious
and acquire habits never perhaps
to be gotten rid OF in after life. ]
need not say to you that to know
ingly sell or give intoxicating drink
to minor is a miSdemeanor, and
the law making it so, should be
rigidly enforced. Bar-keeper5 may
now and then Ignorantly sell liquor
to person who has the appearance
of being q years old when he is not.
but bar keepers cannot habitually
sell whisky or beer to mere boys,
students at college or well known
youths around town without being
aware of the fact that they are VIC
lating the law, and you should spare
no effort to bring such offenders to
justice. The gambling hells spoken
of, if any such exist, should be
wiped out. They are disgrace to
any community, and especially a
reproach to a town like GAINESVILLE,
which prides itself not unrea-
sanably on being an educa-
tional center, place to which
young men from all parts of the
country are sent to be educated.
There are many weak minded
young persons who think it quite
the thing to gamble and drink and
imagine they can never be men
until they acquire those accomplish-'
ments. These youths fall an easy
prey to the designing persons who
frequent such places alone from mo-
tives of gain, and stand ready to
strip them at once of their morals
and their money. These youths,
most of them, are absent from home.
Their fathers and mothers cannot
watch over them. They have no
home influences thrown around
them. 1t therefore behooveS you
to see that whatever the law can do
to protect them from. allurement
and vice shall be done. Summon
LlOoC VI IlOLA VIM aAO oOopOSICO VI
frequenting such places before you,
and make them speak. If they re-
fuse to tell what they know, report
them to me. Summon any respon-
sible citizen whom you may think
to have any information on this
subject, and make real determined
effort to suppress this evil.
The fragrant and open violation
of what is known as the "Sunday
law" is another standing reproach
to the town and the community. If
current report be true, more whisky
is sold in GAINESVILLE on Sunday
than on any other day of the week.
1t is day when all classes are idle,
and. there are special inducements to
hang round drinking saloons. There
appears to be an implied under
standing between the buyer and
the seller, that the latter shall not
report on the former and thus bring
him into trouble, but you are no
party to that understanding. There
are many good men in this commu-
nifty who know more about this
illegal traffic than they would like
to tell. Some have acquired this
knowledge from observation, some
from experience. In either case
their testimony would be valuable,
and it would be we'll for you to es-
tablish a new departure by having
some of them before you. They
would answer without evasion any
questions you might put to them,
and the fact that they were once
summoned would speedily stop the
buying of whisky on Sunday so far
as they were concerned. In this
investigation you should also sum-
mon the police of the town of
GAINESVILLE to see what they are do
ing toward the suppression OF this
illegal practice. 1t is certainly the
duty of the police to know some
thing about the fragrant and notori-
GUS violation OF the criminal law
which is said to be going on in the
community. Their duty is to pat
rol the streets, to visit night and
day suspected places, to arrest with
out a warrant all offenders and to
hold such offenders until legally
discharged.
The Sheriff is the executive officer
of the county; it is his duty to ex-
ecute process from all the courts,
his civil duties are al least as eX-
acting and as important as his GRIM
inal duties. He is often absent in
distant parts of the county. He
and his deputies are not expected to
do police duty, to go about hunting
for violations of the law. What
could the Sheriff of Davidson cOun-
ty have done with the violators OF
the Sunday law in Nashville? 1t
was only through the police, whose
duty it was to be everywhere, and to