The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1890-11-13
LIQUOR LEGISLATION.

Two or three more Daniels, or Dog
berrys or fellows of that sort, have re-
Gently come to the surface out in Kansas
and Iowa, and the good people of those
States who supposed that they had the
liquor traffic closely bottled up under
Prohibitory laws have suddenly awoke
to the fact that they have no such laws.
Prohibition has never had a legal exist
ence. Some one has introduced into the
Vermont Legislature bill re-enacting
all of our rpresent prohibitory laws. We
never had any such laws. We went
through the farce of making what we
called prohibitory laws but inasmuch as
they were not legal they had no exist
ence. Now if the Legislature goes
through the form of re-enacting what
has never been enacted, what does it sig
Nifty? The question is sprung upon us
every little while, does prohibition pro-
hibit? The truth of the matter is that
whatever prohibiting there has been has
resulted in the absence of prohibition.
There are two things to be considered in
this connection. In the first place we
have an illustration of the power of inn
agination. We will look at the matter
as it presents itself in our own State.
The Legislators of the last generation
went through the formula of passing
prohibitory laws. The people believed
that those laws existed and shaped their
conduct accordingly. Every year or two
new Legislators have as they supposed
added something to the law. A new
generation has grown up overshadowed
by the same hallucination. Modern
faith healing is nowhere in the compari-
son with the influence of this delusion.
haxya nII
folded the garments of fself-righteousness
about them upon the suppOsition that
they were Obeying law that was no law
Many man has sold rum, lodged Off
GERS, sneaked into corners, sought to
hush up his conscience, and played all
manner of tricks with his Judgment,
thinking that he was violating law that
was no law. Many man has abstained
from taking drink and commended
himself for not getting drunk contrary
to law when the law was only the shadow
of an obstruction in his path. Many a
man slid down into the ditch, has felt
remorse sitting heavy on his soul, has
hid away in holes and caverns to drink
where the eye of man might not behold
him, to escape the penalty of law that
is no law and has no penalty. 1t is re-
markable what an immense amount of
immoral Indignation has been wasted in
frantic efforts to break down, kick over,
wipe out, annihilate a law that exists
only as a cipher exists when the rim is
rubbed out. This is the result of imag-
ination. People supposed that that the
law existed and consequently they vert
continually running their heads against
It and then rubbing them as if they felt
| the hurt But now that the spell i:
broken, and light has flashed across
| the county from the Western horizon, we
would like to ask as the second thing Il
consider, what shall be done in the cast
of those who have fallen as martyrs t.
the wiles of the prohibitionists? We re
| gret the fate of the victims of the Salem
witchcraft delusion, but the sum total o.
their sufferings was as nothing compared
to the sufferings of men, women anC
children all over the State who wanted
rum and could not get it. Time fails III
to tell of those whose cider barrels hav,
been smashed in, their pocket flask
taken away, their places of business
closed up, they themselves hauled befor
magistrates, their signs taken in, thei
front doors shut, and their bodies hustle'
TO Rutland to fill up measure of hart
work on account of their iniquities. Ii
the centuries to follow there will be un
told amusement and astonishment as tn
strange delusions of this age are studies
as a part of the history of the race
What and who shall compensate thes
sufferers? We ought to do somethin
for them. They'll not be with us grea
while. In Kansas or Iowa the people, o
some of them, are waking up to their OF
portunity. Dram shops are opening O
all sides. Those who have suffered tn
pangs of thirst, and all other kinds q
abuse under this gigantic prohibition
fraud, can now enjoy their revenge an,
hurry on into premature graves wit
nothing to molest or even scare them
Now that we are so thoroughly undo
ceived in regard to prohibition. it ma
be that some other legal eob-webs will
swept away. Some judge in KowbOiduI
will discover knot hole in our marriag
laws, and we shall be as though they ha
never been. The whole country will b
unmarried at one fell swOop. We sha
discover that our children have no legs
existence, in fact that we are not any G
us anywhere so far as the State is col
cerned. Some profound judicial decisio
may take wider range than we hay
considered and loosen the entire fabri
of our civilization. We shall wake u
some fine morning and find ourselvC
sayages as II were, on the banks of som
Congo, feeding our babies to the alligs
tors. We are starting ON course tina
renders us liable 20 Just such contingei
cies as these, and we know of no escap
except by reducing the number Of Judge
in the wild and blooming West.-Herdl
q Ne,rs.