The Press., 1895-01-24
w. C. T. U. DEPARTMENT.
Another Page Written in Blood.
BY HON. A. B. RICHMOND.
Ha that Ia dr,1nkan

lie that Is drunken
 Is outlawed by himself; all kind of ill; Did with his liquor slide into his veins.
 -GeOr0e HeT6eTt..
 have recently finished my eighty eighth homicide case in our court of Oyer and Terminer. Four young men were riding together along @ lonely road in our county. They had with them bottle of friendship they drank freely. The poison had been purchased at a licensed drug store under. the guise of 8 medical pre- seription. A slight admixture of some other drug had been added to it by the pharmacist, to cheat the law and avoid it's penalties. s
 The young men had left the little vil- lage where they procured the murderous compound in apparently the most friend ly feeling. One of them was married man. A few miles from the place of the murder his young wife with her babe waited for the return of the affectionate husband and father.
 It was 8 very cold night in March at a late hour storm of sleet, snow and wind had set in, and as it beat upon the win dow panes of the cottage the young moth CT hoped and prayed that her husband would soon return or that he had stopped very moment her husband, wounded and bleeding, was freezing to death by the roadside. In drunken fight he had been knocked from his wagon, and left in a helpless condition by his drunken com- panions to die.
 In the early morning he was discovered by neighbor who was passing by, and taken to his home. He lived several days after the shock from amputation of his frozen lower limbs. He made state ment in GrticuIis naOrtGS which was read in evidence in the trial of his companions for involuntary manslaughter." It was the old, old story: First, drink taken in fellowship; another, and yet another The licensed demon that turks in every intoxicating cup gained the ascendenoy A thoughtless word uttered in maudlin drunkenness aroused the anger of one of the young men; it was followed by 8 blow. When the trouble ended one of 1 the number lay stunned and bleeding up- on the frozen ground by the roadside. Partially sObered and alarmed at what had been done, the other three young men fled from the place, leaving their companion to freeze and die. Had they moved the unfortunate man to the nearest house, his wounds were not of so aggra- vated a character as to have produced death; but @ consciousness of guilt, with the unreasoning influence of strong drink, made towards of them all.
 They were arraigned for trial before the court that had granted the license to the druggist to sell alcohol under the guise and protection of a medical pre- scriptiOn: After a lengthy trial, which cost the county more than 1t received for a score of licenses, the young men were convicted with a recommendation to the mercy of the court. And very proper it is that the court should heed the recom- mendation, for it was accessory to the crime the defendants committed through it's licensed influence. Yes, the sentence of the court should be tempered with mercy, for it placed the primordial cause of the murder within easy reach of three young men, who without it's influence would have been as guiltless of crime, as the judge who pronounced the sentence of the law.
 In the dying declarations of the de P ceased his last words were, "Whisky was at the bottom of it." Oh, oft told tale o crime and woe! How repeatedly have heard 1t in our so-called .'courts of jus tice" CD and how often, for the same req : son, have heard recommendations tc mercy" by the jury, but never that thu 3 court should refuse te license the sale o the internal spirit that prompts the com mission of all the crimes defined in crim 3 inal code.
 ] Experience of nearly half . century il our courts and the arena of politics hal satisfied me that there Is but one remed! pSle 3a