The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1891-09-09

gest or devise, and yet the law has
been the sport of every attorney who
has appeared to defend the illegal seller
of liquor, and judicial authority has
been accessory to the mockery of law
and justice. Convictions for offences
incurring the penalty of imprisonment
have been practically unknown. Men
have for years been engaged in the
illegal traffic. They have time aud
again been before the courts under con-
viction of illegal sale, but by process
that blinks at the facts and is the YER
lest travesty OF justice, they have never
been advanced in the schedule of crime
beyond conviction for fret offence.
Perennial youth attaches to the rum
sellers mi 'doinys. The means by
which he has secured immunity from
his offences against the law have be.
come as familiar as they are scandal
Gus. Governor Dillingham; fearlessly
set them forth in his message to the
legislature year ago. OF one device
that has become notorious, he says:
"Another difficulty that asserts itself in the
enforcement of this statute arises from the
fact that while, under the law as it now
stands, the person convicted cannot again
open the place adjudged nuisance without
giving the bond prescribed by the statute,
any other person may step in and do So The
result is that the oStenSible proprietorship of
the saloon changes as often as judgments
are entered broad enough in their terms to
really affect the business, but the saloon it.
self goes on as if nothing had happened.
In most instances of this kind the real pro-
prietorshp rests in the person first con-
victed, although it is sometimes difficult to
demonstrate such fact in a court of Justice"
OF the men engaged in this illegal
traffic, and their tender treatment by
the courts, he said:
"They are men who are caloused to all
sense of right and wrong; they enter into
criminal occupation with deliberation, they
pursue it persistently, and they adopt the
most desperate measures to shield them
selves from it's penalties; to avoid the opera
ton of the law, they do not hesitate to COM
nit perjury, and often suborn others to do
the same; their crime is of that order that
can find no justification, nor has it even the
excuse of hot anger or other evil passions
that may be urged by those whose offences
are often followed by long terms in the
state-prison. 1t seems to me that in the
nos thasa laVa haan laa1t t,y;t1
leniently, both by the law-making power
and the courts, and that every subterfuge
beneath which they take refuge, and every
avenue through which they attempt to es-
cape, should be carefully examined and ex-
posed"
Now, this community has become
tired of this state of things. 1t has
taken, on its part, the initatory steps
for the enforcement of the law. 1t de-
mands that the courts sustain its efforts.
The letter and spirit of the law are as
clear as the sunlight. There is law
enough, honestly enforced, to send
every transgressor to prison; and if
penal confinement is the legal con-
sequence of any mans acts, the court
owes it to this community that the law
shall be suffered TO follow its intended
course, even if, as the result, a few
hardened liquor-dea.ers go to the work
house. The movement in this commu-
nifty to enforce the prohibitory law will
fail again if the old lodges and evasions
are again allowed to prevail. Reduction
Of fines, chancering of bonds, mitiga-
ton of penalties on the Old worn-out
pleas and pretenses, is mistaken len
iency, and a crime against the order
loving, long-suffering part of the COM
munity. Offenders have been relieved
of their penalties in whole or in part
on the pea that they were going out
of the business" or some other disin-
genuous pretext, but the saloon has
kept on the even tenor of its way
Like the brook of the song, "Men may
come and men may CO." but the saloon
"runs on forever" We pray the Judge,
jury and prosecuting attorney to help
this community, to the full extent of the
law, TO destroy the saloon.