The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1912-07-19

Leon county remaining dry. The
thinking people knew full we'll that
the Florida Woman's College would be
moved from a liquor county and the
blot on the honor of our states having
saloons run in her capital city kept the
county dry.
The Code of Hammurabi
In the winter Of 1912, an expedi-
ton OF the French government dis
covered on the acropolis at Susa some
broken fragments of a black granite
monument on which was engraved the
Code of Hammurabi
This Babylonian monarch, in order
that the strong might not Cypress the
weak, that his people might know
their rights. that order might be main
tanned throughout his kingdom. caus-
ed his Code of Laws to be carved in
monuments, which monuments were
set up in different parts of his jurisdic
ton that all might read and know.
This was done about $3.50 B. c., more
than a thousand years before the Elam-
lite conquest. Hammurabi is generally
identified with Amarphel Genesis xiv:
| -, the sixth king of the first dynasty
of Babylon. We know much Of this
man because L. W. King, the British
lassyriologist, has done into English
the letters that Hammurabi wrote to
SIM dinnam and also the Chronicles of
the Kings Of Babylon.
Hammurabi had a lot of trouble
with the saloon keepers of his time
because they oppressed the women and
children Of his day. So he drafted eX-
else laws to regulate" the liquor traf-
fee, which laws can now be read in
the recovered Code.
| The behavior Of the saloon keepers
Of 1000 years ago was very much the
same as that of the licensed liquor
dealers of today in this country. First.
they swindled the people by short
measure and this led to the enactment
of section 1OS of Hammurabi's Code
which read:
| IF a wine seller do not receive grain
as the price of drink. but il she re-
ceived money by the great stone, or
make the measure of drink smaller
than the measure for corn, they shall
call that wine seller to account, and
they shall throw her into the water
The Babylonian saloons were SEN
tiers of crime and disorder just as sa-
Icons everywhere are today. This led
the king to enact a provision regulat-
ing the matter. Section 100 of the
Code read:
IF outlaws collect in the house of q
wine seller, and she does not arrest
these outlaws and bring them to the
palace, that wine seller shall be put tC
death.
1t was also found necessary to en-.
act statute to prevent the clergy
from frequenting the legalized Liquor
shops. Section 10 read:
IF a priestess who is now living II
(untranslated) open a wineshop Oh
enter a wineshop for a drink, the,
shall turn that woman"
, Then Hammurabis people had a 10
of trouble about buying wine OIL
credit, especially in time of harves
, when the people needed to be sober il
order to garner their crops. So it wa
r enacted that whose sold wine on credi
3 at such a time could not recover tn,
! full value of the same. Section gov
erning or regulating this matter read
IF a wine seller give go KA o
drink. .....on credit, at the time o
: harvest she shall receive SO KA o
grain"
This system of regulating the liquo
traffic was instituted more than fou
Thousand years ago
The attempts at regulation fai1e,
and the civilization of Babylon wa
snuffed out in an orgy Of drink tina
has been chrOnicled in song and legen,
and history of the ages to this day.
Egypt tried the drink and Egyptian
civilization is now a dream of the pas:
Greco tried it and a few years ago
the outlandish, total abstaining Turk
chased the remains of Greek civiliza
tion all over Thessaly.
Rome tried drink and now the raw
ellings Of Roman civilization are wan
dering about the country with mon
keys and hand organs, collecting pen
MES from thrifty abstainers.
For four thousand years or NOR
since the days of Hammurabi, on
civilization after another has tried t
cure the evils of drink by some sys
tenn of regulation but failure has in
variably followed failure with unerr
ing roll of the ages.
In this drama of forty centuries, tn
historian can not point out a single in
stance where the evils OF drink hav
or taxation.
In this drama of forty centurie.
wherever the evils of drink have no
either the people on account of thei
religion or habits do not drink or wher
the traffic has been rooted out an
plowed under by the strong hand of
iprohibitory law.
DR.. French. some years ago, wrote
history Nineteen Centuries of Drin
in England" 1t is the story of no,
England has been trying for nea
twenty centuries to cure the evils @
drink by regulating the traffic. Now
lcodifcation of her excise laws require
several hundred printed pages and he
regulation mocks the sufferer from tn
curse. In America, we have been try
ing for $50 years to correct the evil
of drink by this or that system or reg
ulation. The result is that the traff
had become SO powerful that it ignore
the regulations and snaps its finger
at the laws. The evils of drink renal
undated.
The friends of regulation have bee
trying to settle the hquor probleI
!. for four thousand years and withou
success
In all those years. it has never sue
ceeded anywhere. 1t has always fail
ed everywhere. even though it has a.
ways been administered by its friend
During the past few decades. tn
policy of prohibition has been tried i
this country, mostly in Isolated place
and always under various handica o
1t has never had square opportu
nifty to show what could be done unde
that policy.
In cases where it has been admins
tered by. its enemies. it has invariabl