The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-02-15
Were Out Investigating Prohi Violations. A , HE JUDGE SENT THEM HOME TO SLEEP IT OFF gNE Soft Drink Stands in Two Decaturs
 Defy Law. Blind Tigers Are Acknowledged On Every Hand To Infest the Twtn s' Cities, But There Are
 Never Any Convie-
 tiens.
BY CHARLES L. HAROLD.


 Decatur. Feb. 14-(speciaL)-In the Twin Cities there are probably not fewer people than 15,00Q and fifteen soft drink stands for each thousand.
 Nobody can be found to deny that practically all these stands are engaged tin the illegal sale of liquors. But con- epicuously absent Is the man who can convict the violator of the prohibition law.
 Indeed. the court records disappoint the student who looks for even a single conviction in Morgan County in the thirteen and one-half months that pro- thibitIon has been in effect. It Is sit- iuation and one that is cause for much alarm among the law and order people tof this community.
 That was a most significant episode in the Morgan County Law ana lEouity Court over which Judge Thomas w. Vert presides. Sensible of the law ldefiance in the two Decaturs, he exer- lcised his Judicial right to summon a grand jury last week. They were as- gembled last Monday morning, and af- ter a charge in which he said 1t was a matter of common knowledge that men were daily violating the prohioi- tion law, the eighteen men drawn from the box were started on their duty. Judge Vert may think now that his frankness with the jury was, perhaps, a little indiscreet For one thing, ne charged his hearers that it was their duty to inquire into, to investigate the reported violations of prohibitions
 Two of the jurors. taking the young fudge at his word and moved by realty to the law, began In reality their in- vestigation. For proof of their enter prise in Investigating the violations, two of the dozen and a half inquisitors turned up the following day exhibiting a most natty jag Either they were jags or the worst cases of stage fright that the Law and Equity Court mas known in some years. So impressed was Judge Vert with the perfect obedi- ence of the pair that he forthwith checked them to their homes.
 Bllnd Tigers Galore.
 Blind tigers acknowledged on every hand to infest the Decaturs. and never d conviction! Nobody in particular is taking the blame. No officers have been impeached and seem to have no dread of impeachment. The two cities appear to be well policed. yet Mayor H. A. Skeggs, of old Decatur. and Mayor Samuel Blackwell. of New Decatur. will both tell you that they have convicted no soul. black or white, for violating fhe prohibition law. The tigers fatten ~vel1 and smile with the surfeit of their Drofts. Yet their concern about thelr own prosecution Is not losing them any flesh or throwing their brows.
 But there are times when the lid IS on. It was on this week. With the feryid charge of the Law and Equity judge at the beginning of the week: u. U. gers ears began to prick up. Sott drink stands shut down on their bus tiness and sales were short. It was the sure sign of the lid. the sitting of d grand jury on which were serving some of the most influential men Of the county. That jury was adjourned as noon Saturday. They had returned eighty indictments for the Week W.T. VI. rsaIc to be the best and most productive iurors that had sat since prohibition oe- gan Numerous of these true bills were for prohibition violations.
 Eut what is an arrest, what is an at- 3daytt. or what is even an indictment here? They have been presented to The court before. Ample have been tho opportunities to convict, but not ons blind tiger has been brought to justica Solicitor D. F. Greene has industrtouslS prosecuted the cases that it was hii duty to prosecute. but he Is confronted with conditions of the kind that bloch the work of Jefferson County prosecu tors, except they are worse here. II fhe few violations to which witnessei have been procured. on the day of trial The memory of those witnesses ap breaches a negative; for some reason There is a continuance and when every one is ready for trial to actually begin a panic has seized the important wit nesses and they have gone to unknown parts. As the bailiff calls out: "TheI have gone. they are not here" Thel follows the common procedure of no
 One Jury Hung.
 The best done by the courts so Ia is to hang one jury To an outside at is said that the testimony was Of strongly convicting nature. Most O the spectators and Judge Vert looked for the blank record to be broken il this instance sure. But after retIrini for a few hours, the jury returned. I'm foreman gravely announced that the! had divided and failed of verdict There was a sigh of the prohibttionist and the defendant was shortly there after discharged. being negro accua ed of "boot-legging" whiskey.
 But with even this woeful weakness of the prohibition law. with even th very limited enforcement of 1t her where probably the defiance Is un tequalled, the advocates of the dry re Nwime havea a most powerful argumen in results Tn the Twin Cities the sr rests for misdemeanors have been GU