. LIQUOR LEGISLATION. 793 



of injuring himself and the public when he knows that it will be so 

 used, and when he has reason to believe that it will be so used, not 

 caring whether it is or not, and, further than this, that he does it for 

 his own selfish gain. In short, the liquor-dealer sells his deleterious 

 liquids for the purpose of profit with a full knowledge of their inju- 

 rious tendency, and in utter carelessness as to the injury they may do. 

 We find a recognition of the truth of this position in the provisions of 

 the civil-damage laws, and in the restrictions placed upon licensees as 

 to sales to minors and persons known to be drunkards. 



Let us pursue this further by means of a couple of supposed in- 

 stances, such as occur every day. John Smith has been, during the 

 week, a capable and industrious workman, earning full wages every 

 day. Saturday night he gets his pay and goes to the stores, where he 

 falls in with boon companions and sj^ends his week's wages at the 

 grog-shop, standing treat and drinking himself until his money is gone. 

 Late at night he is put out into the street drunk, the liquor-seller hav- 

 ing got his money and being ready to close the shop. Result the first: 

 The liquor-seller has received, say, twelve dollars, of which at least 

 three quarters, or nine dollars, is profit. Result the second : Smith is 

 arrested and put into the lock-up for the remainder of the night ; in 

 the morning he is brought before a magistrate and fined one dollar 

 and costs amounting to at least five dollars, and usually more, for want 

 of which he goes to jail for ten days. Result the third : Smith's family 

 applies to the overseers of the poor for assistance, and they, being un- 

 able to refuse, are likely to expend five or six dollars. Total results, 

 leaving out the moral deterioration of Smith and his family, nine 

 dollars profit to the liquor-seller, costs of prosecution paid by the 

 county, Smith and his family supported at the expense of the town 

 and county for ten days, and Smith's productive labor for ten days 

 lost to the community. 



At the least calculation, in order that the liquor-seller may make 

 his profit, the community has lost much more than an equal amount. 

 Li this instance I have supposed the liquor-buyer to spend a full week's 

 wages, but the contrast is still greater if we suppose, as is more fre- 

 c^uently the case, that the buyer has only money sufficient to buy liquor 

 enough to cause his intoxication ; that he is arrested and committed 

 to jail for non-payment of fine and costs. The county then has the 

 costs to pay, and the liquor-seller's profit is only a very small percent- 

 age of the expense he has caused the community. Let us attack his 

 profit, wherever his trade is injurious to the public, and we shall be in 

 a fair way to drive him out of the business altogether, or to oblige 

 him to exercise such care in his management as to deprive it of its 

 harm. 



The first effect arising from the use of intoxicating liquor is drunk- 

 enness. It is proper that this offense against decency should be pun- 

 ished. Let the liquor-seller pay the expense of inflicting such punish- 



