Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1885-09-03
An Iowa Judges Rebuke.


The Hon f. NJ Hubbard, District
Judge of the Eighth Judicial District of
Iowa, in passing sentence upon some
liquor dealers for violation of the pro-
hibtory laws of the state, said:
While there are greater crimes known
to the law that are punishable with
great severity, there are none which in
volve more of those qualities known as
despicable meanness and audacity, than
the selling of intoxicating liquors
There is something in the taking of
human life SO instantaneous that it
shocks and terriiies the minds of all;
and yet we look upon the man who
takes human life quite as surely, but by
slow, lingering process, if not without
condemnation, at least with horror.
You who stand before the court for
sentence are in every moral sense MUIR
derers, and you are within the spirit, if
not the letter, guilty of manslaughter;
for the law says that whoever aceeler-
ates the death of human being unlaw-
fully, is guilty of the crime. Your
bloated victims upon the witness stand,
and who undoubtedly committed per-
jury ~ SCIe6H you lIOu tue law, not
only abundantly testify that you are
accelerating death, but that you are in
ducing men to commit still greater
crimes than your own.
You still maintain the appe france of
responsibility, but how morally leprous
and scrofulous you are inwardly! The
ruin, poverty, and idlepess which you
are intlicting upon this community, de-
clare 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 community, and there
by converting happy industrious homes
into misery, poverty, and rags Anx-
ious wives and mothers watch aud 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 debauchery
One can have no adequate conception
of a cataract until he has seen Niagara,
nor of the terrible fury and grandeur of
storm in mid-ocean until he has wit
messed 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
persistent, defiant law-breakers, and
shamelessly boast that In defiance of
the law and moral sense of the com
munity, you will continue in your wick
ed and criminal practices, 1t has there
fore now become the imperative duty
of this court to let fall upon YOU so
heavily the arm of the law. that you
shall either be driven from your nefa-
rious traffic, ruined in your fortunes or
wicked prosperity. You have become
a stencil to the nostrils of the communi-
ty. and all good men are praying that
YOU be speedily reformed or summarily
DESTROYED. BY the providence of God
and the favor of this court, these pray
ers shall be speedily answered 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 desist from your criminal
yaeabond traffic and betake yourselves
10 some honest livelihood that you
may vet become virtuous, useful citi-
zens. and entitled to the respect of q
Christian community. If you persist
in this way, your ruin is certain, and
and You will receive as you deserve,
the execration of mankind. You ma V
think that the sentence of the court IS
harsh and uniustly severe, but the court
assures you that compared with your
crimes aud the deselation you have al
ready brought upon the community, it
is mild in the extreme.