Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-04-06
LODGING THE LIoUOR LAW.
No License Nullified in Winsted By {
 Flood of Prescriptions.

No License Nullified in Winsted By
 Flood of Prescriptions.
 A Winsted correspondent of the Hart ford Times writes that paper as follows concerning the no license law in that place:
 Last October Winsted was carried for no license by 119 majority. When the licenses expired November l, the saloon keepers had either retailed or returned to the whole salers every drop of liquor on their pre- lnises; but most of them have kept their places open, and have tried to make out a living with temperance drinks, cigars, pool, billiards and card tables None of them are selling intoxicating liquor, nor does any one claim that they are.
 l As matter of course, each of the five druggists secured a license, which permits him to sell on prescriptions of practicing physicians. Thirsty people were a little l 1'rattled" at first, some of the doctors re- fl sing to prescribe except in cases of abso- lute necessity, and none of them were certain to be found at any particular hour This stringency was eventually re- faxed, (although things were yet blue) when batch of prescrip- Hoffman" blew into town! Some one said Hoffman was an M. D. in Los Angeles, Gal. However that may be, he was ''solid" with the druggists. His reel pes were gilt-edged article, and several good sized blocks of them were given away One of these papers, if not for g specified quantity, will get any number of bottles filled at one lime, provided the whole does not exceed ,ve gallons. When Hoffman was stricken with writer's par alysis, and his prescriptions fell off, phy sicians in neighboring towns sent in few driblets. Then R--, M. D., and J., M ,f,;I ,a1 ioJ, were distributed from several places and free prescriptions became "thick as au- tumnal leaves that strew the brooks in Vallambrosa." The dwelling place of these gentlemen is profound secret as the burial place of Moses, but perhaps some wholesale liquor agent could give a shrewd guess. The law does not require that the prescribing physician shall be resident of the town, state, or hemisphere
 Then, too, forged prescriptions are in vogue To sign aniother's name to a pre- scription is not forgery in technical sense, it is not crime, so the lawyers say,- for that requires intent to defraud |; | and, for the same reason, to get it filled is not obtaining goods under false pretences It is much nicer question whether @ druggist violates the law by selling on a fictitious prescrip ption which he believes to be genuine. On that point good lawyers disagree but the weight of opinion seems to be in the affirmative, based in part on the analogy with the case of selling to a minor, where honest mistakes of the seller is no defense. There is now no dearth of prescriptions, domestic, foreign or forged Besides this, it is said that most of the druggists sell to certain (proper) parties without a prescription although they don t proclaim it from the housetops In all | these ways no license is easily nullified in | Winsted.
 No license has suppressed the general consumption of lager beer and it has open ed the doors of saloons to minors Several kegs of lager are consumed weekly by fclubs, but the staple beverage is whisky, bought and d. unk by the bottle. One bad feature of the present condition of things is that minors may now play cards and in dulge in other games of chance and skill in saloons as freely as adults. Those most competent to judge say there is more drunkenness in town than there was last year. One would naturally suppose that the druggists are not displeased to have their incomes increased by this new pat ronage, but they are, almost to a man, strongly in favor of license The majority of the physicians are probably of the same Sentiment. That these druggists and doe tors should prove efficient conservators of l the liquor traffic, and heartily cooperate | with the people who have forced the office upon them, would be indeed an anomaly in human nature.