The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-02-15
TWO GRAND JURORS
 GET ON A NATTY JAG

decreas sed. It is not a fact that a stranger may get . drink Tor ths throwing down of the coin. If he has not friends to escort him into ,s, .nS .ssss ahiv not procure his toddy. He will not eyen get his customary beer.
 TKs proprietor, too. Of the pima tiger is a cautious man. He studies his customer He is not willing 70 sen to the babbling youth and escneWs tne | ragged tough. to sell whom would pc l a greater risk than the profts war | rant
 Blackwell and it Is very much proven by experience in his city. The young man who ,ioes not crave has been put | in a different category from him who | Is settled in habits and actually would make an effort to get drink. The young man in many instances would have not near the zeal in running down the tiger.
 Mayor Blackwell told the writer of a patent of his own to reach the pro- prietor of the tiger. It explains his in- creased fine for drunkenness which. now stands firm at $21.60, the odd fig ures being for costs. The fine before prohibitio nwas in effect was at most tsss.
 Drunkard's Fine decreased. I0inE0 tHG lAhS AOE ut said Mayor Blackwell. because I felt 1 that a man in becoming intoxicated in most cases bought 1t illegally and must | therefore have encouraged some one to break the law, must have applied for his drink to the man who sold him in violation of the law. That of course was not the case in the reign of the saloon.
 -wen, I imagined that if 1t were so | Aff9fNx.rt AA AA nnn xyfQfinn nf the man who sold the drink, to put an unchanging fine of ;20 and costs on | the wretch who appeared before me- would after all be punishing in effect | the operator of the blind tiger. To H. lustrate, 6 case was called the other | day of a man who appeared with lawyer of this city to plead his case. | The lawyer made q most earnest ap- peal to let his client off with e nomi- nal fine, tried to get me to let up on the heavy penalty had been inflict- ing on drunks 1t was pleaded that the nan was not accustomed to drink, did not usually come to town in that condition and his family in the coun- try was then waiting for his return. If the s21.so was imposed. said the lawyer. the man would have to work it | out on the streets.
 'T thought would here bring my theory to a test. said to the coun- sel: If you will tell the court or get your client to tell who 1t was that sold him his whiskey, will not fine him. If he does not want to tell am. sure that you can go round to the | place where the whiskey was bought and on threat to disclose his name get l the money to pay the fine. They would pay the fine rather than be ar- rested for their violation of the pro- hibition law Hardly had spoken my terms when the lawyer impatiently drew from his pocket 6 roll of bills and said that rather than bother with the case further, he would pay the fine. was then convinced that he had already done what I suggested, gone to the source of the drink and col lected the fine.
 At least. I am working on that sup position. I started to fining them t10. but raised 1t to s20."
 No Material Effect.
 Mayor Blackwell does not think that his increased fine for intoxication. has had a material effect on decreasing
 since prohibition. In this some of his
 fellow citizens disagree. with him.
 Said one of them:
 There has been a decrease in ar-
 rests for drunkenness, Of course: why
 should there not be? The mayor used
 to fine the offender s25O and s5. Now
 he fines him S20. I have seen men
 and boys on the streets drunk who
 would not ordinarily get the care of
 their sober fellows, but who now have
 enough sympathy to start them on
 their way home to save them the S20
 soak that is now the cost of a cheap
 jag"
 Tending to corroborate this is the
 statement of Superintendent Nolan. of
 the Traction Company. who gives 1t as
 his. opinion that since prohibition be-
 gan there are about as many intoxi-
 cated men, if not more. handled by the
 street cars than before They seer to
 have more sense about getting home
 before the police get them"
 However, this view of the matter cannot account for the very pronounced
 decrease in arrests for all the ordinary
 offenses that hitherto congest the DO. lice dockets. Here are the facts: There were in 1907 a total of IS; arrests for. drunkenness in New De.
 catur while in the arst year of prohi. bition there were only fifty arrests fol that onense. This is a decrease oi 1SS. Iny old Decatur. the arrests foi
 this offense in 1907 were All and 1T the first year of "dry" the number was only 123. The total arrests fol 1907 in old Decatur were 1,54S as com. 1 phEeu WltH ooS IOT lbU6. For all of , lenses in New Decatur there were ar.
 rested in 1907 total of 657 and 1T
 1908 the total was PTS.
 In Old Decatur Mayor SkeEgs doet
 not dispute the significance of thes, . figures. He admits that crime has beer . decreased in his city. He acknowl edges that much beer and whiskey 1. ! being consumed but that some good ef fleets flow from the reign of dry. Consumption Of BOOHe. ] It is always practically impossibl, to estimate the amount of booze tha is being consumed In a given commu.
 nity since prohibition took hold of tn, reins. With repeated reports of oper violations of the law in the TwiI Cities. one would naturally infer tha
 the consumption in these parts wa great There has come to the write ! indirect evidence that blind tigers d, . a land office business here. In tn,
 first place the director of a leading
 bank was approached for an opinion | as to whether prohibition had encour . aged thrift. if 1t had swelled the banl | accounts of the depositors who wer
 given to drink their heads off, or 0 . those who were never deposItors at all
 NGa |