The St. Lucie County tribune. (Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, Fla.) 1905-1920, 1906-08-10
JUDGE JONES
ON DRY SIDE
Saloons OverpOwer all Religious
and Parental Teachings.
ESTRANGES FAMILY TIES
"Ali Thinking Men Have Agreed That The
Saloon is the Most Fruitful Source
OF Want and Sorrow and SIM"
Titusville, Fla, Aug. Z, 1905.


Editors ST. LUCIE COUNTY TRIBUNE:
| have the honor to acknowledge your
favor of yesterday.
OF course the Judge of the circuit
court ought not in advance to have an
opinion on the manner Of holding any
particular election, but on the morals
of the liquor business generally, take
it, he may have and also, express an
opinion. To the point then.
Much experience and observation has
given me an aversion to the saloon.
Much experience and observation has
convinced me that decentralization is in
evitably engendered by the saloon, and
that such decentralization overpowers all
influence and teachings religious and
parental. 1t sways and hardens the
conscience of barkeeper and patrons.
Sooner or later the milk of human
kindness will be dried up in the heart
of the man who runs the saloon, and
sooner or later, the habit Of attending
it will end in disaster to the man who
spends his time in it.
Almost all men are social and con-
vivial by nature, and almost all men
are thus likely to be swept by its asso-
Citations into debt and excess, and to
end by neglecting the family the first
and tenderest tie that our Great Creator
established. TO strong men the saloon
is ever dangerous: to weak men it is
inevitably ruinous.
! do not believe in sumptuary laws,
and | believe strongly in the theory of
personal liberty, But the necessities of
the social union have made necessary
and established the power to restrict
and restrain those natural rights the
exercise of which initiates against the
mass and, surely, all thinking men have
agreed that the open saloon is most
fruitful source of want and sorrow and
sin, as well, in all its awful ranfica-
tons. The sale Of liquor might be so
regulated as to be consistent with the
public good, but the open saloon will
always be repugnant to good morals
and social safety.
1t is hard to control the appettcs Of
men, and this single fact makes the
only difficulty in the way of prohibition.
Put down the saloon and the blind
tiger" is liable to succeed to it with an
effrontery that shocks the nerves and
forttude of the staunchest citizen, But
the "blind tiger is weaker than its
conqueror. 1t is under the unmitigated
ban of the law, while the saloon is
bolstered up by technical rights Incl
dent to its license. The saloon is thus
endowed with the decency of Il legal
status, while the blind tiger is more
or less sthed by the very air of rogucry
and secrecy in which it abdos, In the
language of wise old friend Of mine,
"a licensed tiger with both eyes open
is more deadly than many blind ones, y
Indeed the blind tiger" thrives only
when the sentiment of the public is H..
different. 1t is not any business Of
mine to NEEDLE, but if ST. lucie county
goes dry and her fathers and mothers
are brave and persistent in holding up
public sentimentto the sticking point IN
the maintenance Of the law, the "biind
tiger" will not thrive in your midst, fer
in my opinion the court officers now
serving, and those to succeed, are lovers
of the law and will be jealous in en-
forcing it in all particulars.
Perhaps could not further impres SIS
my view of the matter if ] wrote col
umn or two, and will 50 close with an
assurance of great respect for the
TRIBUNE. Very truly,
MINOR $. JONES.