The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1886-05-12

Hon. F. NJ. Hubbard, District
Judge ofthe Eighth Judicial District
OF Iowa. in passing a sentence upon
some liquor dealers for violation of
the prohibitory laws Of the State
said:
"While there are greater crimes
known to the law which are punisha-
BILE with great severity, there are
none which involve more of those
oualitie. known as despicable mean
ness and audacity than the selling
of intoxicating liquor.
There is something III the taking
of human life by violence so instan-
taneous that it shocks and terriies
the minds OF all, and yet we look
upon the man who takes human
lie quite as surely, but by slow, lin
gering process-if not without con-
demnation, at least with horror.
You who stand before the Court for
sentence are in every moral sense
murderers, and you are within the
spirit, if not the letter guilty eff man
slaughter; for the law says that
whoever a~ccelerates the death of a
human being unlawfully is guilty of
the crime. Your bloated victims
upon the witness stand, and who
undoubtedly committed perjury to
screen you from the law, not only
abundantly testihes that you are
accelerating death, but that you are
inducing men to commit still
greater crimes than your own.
You still maintain the appear
ance of responsibility, but how NOR
ally lepreus and scrofulous you are
.inwardly! The ruin, poverty and
idleness you are inhicting upon this
community declare as from the
housetops hat you are living in
idleness, and eating the bread of
orphans watered with widows tears (;
YOU are stealthily killing your vic
tins and numbering the peace and
industry of the community, and
thereof converting happy, indus
trious homes into misery, poverty
and rags.
Anxious wives and mothers watch
and pray in tears nightly with desc
late hearts for the coming home of
your victims, whom you are Turing
with the wiles and smiles ofthe dew
il into midnight debauchery.
an fine one can have no adequate
conception of a cataract until he has
seen Niagara, nor ofthe terrible fury
and granduer of a storm in mid
ocean until he has witnessed one
so nc one can know the utter degra-
dation and total d~epravity to which
his species can he brought until he
looks upon the desolate ruin caused
by your heilish traffic.
"You are persistent. defiant law
breakers and shamelessly boast
that, in defiance of the law and NOR
al sense Of the community, you will
continue in your wicked and crimi-
nal practices.
1T has therefore now become the
imperative duty OF this Court to let
fall upon you so heavily the arm of
the law. that you shall be driven
from your nefarious traffic, or ruin
ed in Your fortunes OF wicked pros
perty. You have become a stencil
10 the nostrils of The community,
and all good men are praying that
you be speedily removed or sum
marily destroyed. By the providence
of God and the favor of the court,
these prayers shall be spred;ly an
swered by signal and exact justice
10 your crimes.
And finally, let me entreat you,
if you are not lost TO every sentiment
of humanity, to des.st from your
criminal vagabond traffic AID betake
yourselves TO some homes; calling
for a livelihood and you may vet
become virtuous, useful citizens,
and entitled to the respect of d
Christian community while if you
persist in this way, your ruin is GER
tain, and you will receive, as you
deserve, the execration of man
kind.
"Yeu may think that the sentence
of the Court is harsh and unjustly
severe, but the Court you
that, compared with your crimes
and desolation you have already
brought upon the community, it is
mild in the extreme