The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1886-04-07
/" HAD BEEN DRINKING"


But How About the 1Gan who e0l4 TAe0
the Helllsh Polsonf
One night, not long ago, five San
Francisco hoodlums committed q beast
ly outrage upon woman who was old
enough to be their mother. When the
young scoundrels were arrested, they
said: 1--WE had been drinking together
all the evening. and we hardly knew
what we were doing" That excuse
will not help them. It is a we'll set
tied principle In our courts that drunk
enness does not justify or even palliate
crime. The hoodlums are verify guilty,
and will be severely punished.
But how about the man who tempted
them to drink, and who gave them rum
late at night, knowing that it would
fire their brains and send them out into
the streets as bowling demonsP Has he
no responsibility in this matterp Yes,
in the sight of God he is particeps
criminis, an accessory before the fact,
the alder and abettor of the scoundrels
whom he prepared for their deed OF
violence and shame. At the bar of con-
science and common sense he must be
pronounced guilty. But our human
laws pay no attention to him. The
officers Of justice do not inquire where
those hoodlums got their whisky
what one Of the thousands of licensed
dram-shops they patronized that night.
Now, this Is all wrong, and IL is time
that people walked up to see 1t. If the
rum-seller was arrested whenever those
who had drank to intoxication at his
bar were guilty of crime-a crime
evidently committed because they were
drunk-if he had to stand with them in
the dock and bear disgrace and pun
ishment with them well, If this did
not drive him out of the business it
would make him little more careful
as to when and to whom he sold his
liquid damnation. The GOODNESS with
which the liquor business shirks its re-
sponsibilities is something marvellous.
It will be one of the wonders of history
when our great grandchildren read
the annals of this age.
The case of those hoodlums made me
think of Samson and the foxes. SAM
son caught the foxes and tied them to-
gether with firebrands between them.
That is just what our rum-scllers do.
They get men together. They fire
them up in couples and companies.
They know very well that men are far
more reckless in masses than alone.
And so they try to attract crowd. Ten
men together will drink twice as much
as the aggregate of what the same num-
ber of men would drink il they went to
the bar one by one. Well, Samson
coup ed his foxes and fired them, and
then let them go. That was all he did.
He knew, of course, that they would
run into the standing corn of the Phil
istines, and burn it up. But he didn' t
send them there. Then what right had
the Philistines TO blame Samson? What
business had they to go and burn his
wife and her fatherP They did not un-
derstand the limitations of responsible
ty as we do. They did not recognize
the inalienable right of men in free
country to catch as many foxes AZ they
can and fire them up and turn them
loose. That you and have standing
corn that will be imperiled by the fiery
foxes may be our misfortune, but it is
not Samson's fault. All TINT he does
is perfectly right and legal. Our wrath
and indignation must be expended only
on the foxes. They alone are to blame.
If we can catch them we ought to pun-
ish thom severely. But as for Samson,
he is as strong in his rights as he is in
his muscles. He need not go and in
trench himself on the top of the rock
Elam. He can set traps for foxes with
impunity all over the blackened fields.
He can kindle fresh fires there, and
gather firc-brands. ready for more
sport whenever there is any thing more
to burn.
Now, that is the theory and practice
of the liquor business in these days.
The world has made great progress
since Samson's time. The giant Of the
sstill is great deal stronger than the
giant son of Manoah was. And he
goes about Staying his thousands and
tens of thousands, and nobody thinks
of arresting him as murderer. Oh.
no, he has "a right to slay, for he does
not do the deed directly. He only
sharpens the knife and puts 1t into the
hand of the man he has crazed, and
tells him to go and kill somebody clse.
In all other cases we arrest and try a
particeps criminis, an accessory before
the fact, an alder and abettor Of crime.
And when we get wise enough and just
enough to do SO in the case Of the liq-
uor traffic, we will soon have this mod
ern Samson shorn, and grinding in the
mill of some useful occupation instead
of gathering foxes and tying firebrands
to their tails Obadiah OLdsck0ol," in
Chicago Interior.