Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1885-10-15
An iowa Judges Rebuke.

Hon. f. NJ. Hubbard, district
indoe of the eighth judicial district
If Iowa, in passing sentence upon
some liquor dealers for violation of
+bo prohibitory laws of the state,
said: "While there are greater crimes
Inowp to the law which are punish
able with great severity, there are
none which involve more of those
nnalities known as despicable mean
ness and audacity than the selling
If intoxicating liquors. There is
something in the taking of human
life so instantaneous that it shocks
and terrifies the minds of all; and
vet we look upon the man who takes
bnman life quiet as surely, but by
slow, lingering process, if not with
ont condemnation, at least without
horror. You who stand before the
conrt for sentence are ia every NOR
al sense murderers, and you are with
in the spirit, if not the letter, guilty
of manslaughter; for the law says
that whoever accelerates the death
Of n human being unlawfully, is
Guilty Of the crime. Your bloatcd
victims upon the witness stand, and
who undoubtedl; committed perjury
TO screen you from the law, not only
abundantly testify that you are ac-
celebrating death, but that you are
inducing men to commit still great
err crimes than your own. You still
maintain the appearance of respecta-
bility, but how morally leprous and
scrofuous you are inwardly. The
ruin, poverty, and idleness which
YOU are intiicting upon this com
munity declare as from the housetops
that YOU are living in idleness and
eating the bread of orphans watered
with widows tears; you are stealthily
killing your victims, and numbering
the peace and industry of the com
munity, and thereby converting hap
py. industrious homes into misery,
poverty, and rags. Anxious wives
and mothers watch and pray in tears
nightly, with desolate hearts, for the
coming home Of your victims, whom
you are Turing with the wiles and
smiles Of the devil into midnight
debauchery.
zone can have no adequate concep-
tion of a cataract until he has seen
Niagara, nor of the terrible fury and
grandeur of storm in mid-ocean
until he has witnessed one; so no
one can know the utter degradation
and total depravity to which his
species can be brought until he looks
upon the desolate ruin caused by
your hellish traffic. You are per-
sistent, defiant law-breakers, and
shamelessly boast that in defiance
Of the law and moral sense of the
community, You will continue in
your wicked and criminal practices.
II has, therefore, now become the
imperative duty of this court to let
fall upon so heavily the arm of the
law that you shall either be driven
AAOln 1Oul utAdl lOhS VI tAtlbs VI ulLNb
in your fortunes or wicked prosper
ity. You have become a stencil to
the nostrils of the community, and
all good men are praying that you
be speedily reformed or SUMMARY
destroyed. BY the providence of
God and the favor of this court,
these prayers shall be speedily an
swered by signal and exact justice
for your crimes. And finally, let me
entreat you, if you are not lost to
every sentiment of Humanity, to de-
sist from your criminal vagabond
traffic and betaIe yourselves to some
honest calling for . livihood, that
you may yet become yirtious, useful
citizens and entitled to the respect
of a Christian community. If you
persist in this way, your ruin is
certain, and you will receive as you
deserve, the eXercration of mankind.
Ion may think that the sentence of
the court is harsh and unjustly
serve, by the court assures you that
compared with your crimes and the
desolation you have already brought
upon the community, it is mild in
the extreme. "-NorttOeSterl Chris