The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1894-11-15

buried and lead an honorable life in
the future, never goes to any society; he
manfully grasps the problem of his
future; he never for one moment for
gets that ex-convict is his title; he never
hopes the world will forget it; he is toe
sensible to believe they ever WILL But he
is conscious that he can be a man in
spite OF the past; he has all the elements
in him of man; he needs no law tc
control him other than Gods law, and a
resolute will. Such man is safe, and
the world will respect him, and not ad
vertise him. Friends will arise for him
he need not seek friendship. Conduct
makes the man; the world will over.
look the past, but never forget; the
line is ever drawn, and the sensible
man knows it, and never tries to go be-
yond It, We enot pessimistic, we are
simply truthful. You may tell the ex-
convict he can reach the topmost round
OF the ladder of fame and social stand
ing; we tell him he can't! But we do
say, he can become good citizen, an
honest sober, respectable, God fearing
man, and this should be the highest
ambition of the ordinary mortal. Now
in the article referred to by the Journal,
the main object of restrictive laws in
selling liquor to ex-convicts we tried to
show: lay in their application to men
who deliberately sell to ex convicts
knowing them to be such; and we main
tain that there are many of these resorts
IN all large cities, and they are known
to the police. Not professional thief,
or an ex-convict enters the place but is
known to saloon-keepers and police
men. Here they are permitted to con-
gregate, drink, lose their reason, hatch
and commit crime; then the hue and
cry, arrest, conviction, incarceration
and attempt to cure the very evil they
made no attempt to prevent. 1t is a
return to these associations, these haunts
that bring the great majority of con-
victs back to prison; this is their own
admission. What stronger proof can
be asked than that it is from Just such
joints the most of them are captured?
Who comes to the rescue of the pro-
fessional thief? Invariably the keeper
of some joint! 1t seems, and recent in
designations in New York confirm the
fact, that for percentages paid to the
keepers of these joints and the police.
professional patrons are protected bv
the very men who are supposed to
prevent as well as detect crime. In
fact we know of instances mot person
ally where this has frequently been
done right in pure Minnesota. Would
the journal want a brand placed upon
a man to demonstrate his character
who would frequent such dive as the
one recently closed by Minneapolis
Mayor, the notorious Harris dive?
Scores of men in this institution can
trace their downfall to resorts of that
kind, and we say again they will hail
with JOY any law that will forever crush
them. The ex-convict needs no other
mark. The fact that there are such
dives; the fact that they frequent them
stamps their character The police
always know the ex convict. Their
pictures adorn the galleries of all police
headquarters in the country; they know
the day they are turned loose upon
society, so do the keepers OF dives.
With restrictive laws their duty is
plain; quietly notify these keepers that
they must not harbor, or sell liquor to
the ex-cOnvict under the severest penal
ties, and the convict leaving here as
they all do, with the best of resolutions.
will in all human probability try to
take the right path and be man. Pass
the law and our word for it, the majority
OF eX- CONFLICTS will assist in it's enforce.
ment for we have knowledge that there
is no love for the saloon-keeper hidden
IN the convict'S heart. The respectable
saloon-keeper will not permit crime to
be Matched in his place; he will harbor
no criminal, no convict. 1t is the
cess-pool of iniquity; the door to hell:
the joint; these ares the dives where
are made. 1t does not re-
luire glasses to see them, nor brands to
mark their patrons. Get honest men
20 enforce this law, and the step in the
light direction will have been taken to
diminish crime, and save many a man
sOOn to be cast upon the world.
Will the Journal advocate such law?
AARAR EINHakNS APE