The leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1895-1905, 1903-11-18
DRUNKENNESS IN PUBLIC PLACES.


law against drunkenness in public
places by our city and county Off
Gals, there is undoubtedly room
for much Improvement in this di-
rection. In fact, it has been we'll
remarked by observant citizens,
that if our town officials and con-
stables would honestly and impair
TALLY enforce the law in this par
ticular, it would reduce the blind
tiger nuisance to the minimum,
since the tigers could not thrive
without such patronage, and men
in the habit of appearing drunk
on the streets, if they were sum-
marily arrested and locked up in
Jail and made to pay the legal pen
altywhen sober, would cease patro-
nizing the tigers and getting drunk
as they do, when no serious at
tention is paid to the offense of
drunkenness.
For the information of officers,
drunkards and the public general
ly, The Leader quotes below the
section of the Annotated Code of
1892 bearing directly on this
subject:
Section 1919. Profanity an d
drunkenness.-If any person shall
profanely swear or curse or be
drunk in any public place, in the
presence of two or more persons,
he shall, upon conviction thereof,
be fined not more than ten dollars
for each offense."
Thus it will be seen that per-
son does not have to be boisterous
and disorderly to come under the
provision of the law, but is liable,
if he is simply drunk in public
place in the presence of two OF
mole persons. The section also
covers the separate ofense of pro-
family, which quite as often goes
along with drunkenness as with
out it.
AS indicated in the opening OF
this article our officials have been
altogether too coy in dealing with
this drunkard nuisance. Since the
new county Jail has been finished
and the city and county had a
good place to confne drunkards
until they sobered up and could
be arraigned in court, drunken
men, who had tanked up on blind
tiger whisky or a Jug received
by express from Canton or New
Orleans, have been allowed to
swagger on the streets and in the
stores among business people and
sober customers, to their annoy
ance and disgust.
Sometimes the law is made a
farce of after such characters have
been arrested. The last converse
ton the editor of The Leader had
with Policeman Forsythe, muir
dered by drunken man who up
to the night of that bloody
tragedy had gone unmolested on
the streets, he recited in this con-
versation that only the Saturday
night previous he had arrested a
man for being drunk and disor-
derby and started to lodge him in
Jail and had actually gotten as far
as the jail door with him when his
superior officer interposed, re-
leased the drunken man on bond
and allowed him to come back
down in town. "Then" continued
Policeman Forsythe, che remain
ed in town nearly all night, and
was more disorderly than ever,
and he was an old offender, too"
On a Saturday, some two weeks
ago, a drunken man was standing
in front of .Decell's Stable, hailing
and stopping passers-by. The
Mayor was notified of the situa-
ton and soon the man was arrest
ed by an officer and carried to the
Mayors Office, where he was per-
mitted to give bond and released.
Late the same afternoon, several
hours afterwards, this same man,
REINFORCED by another drunkard,
was seen by the editor of The
Leader staggering on the side
walk in front Of Seavey & Sons
store, and hailing in familiar
way persons who passed. That
night between midnight and day,
this man and his partner, aroused
well-known citizen of the town
by their noise around his premises
where they spent most Of the
night, too drunk, presumably, to
know what they we're doing.
When the first named Of these
offenders sobered up and returned
to town the following week, ac-