642 



MISSOUKI. 



into service for any purpose whatever. In the 

 southern and western counties game is more 

 abundant than in Kansas and Texas, and three 

 fourths of the area has never been brought 

 under cultivation. 



A revision of the law relative to insurance 

 was adopted. It provides that a life policy 

 shall not be wholly forfeited and the holder 

 lose all he has paid on it by his failure to keep 

 the premiums paid up, but that, in case of such 

 failure, he shall be entitled to that proportion 

 of the original amount assured indicated by the 

 payments he has made the amount to be pay- 

 able at his death. As to fire policies, the law 

 provides that the amount insured " shall be 

 taken conclusively to be the true value of the 

 property when insured, and the true amount of 

 loss and measure of damages when destroyed " ; 

 but it allows the company the choice of either 

 paying this amount in cash or rebuilding and 

 restoring the building to its original condition 

 as to value, size, plan, and general finish. If 

 the building is partially destroyed or injured, 

 the company must pay a sum of money equal 

 to the damage done, or repair the same to the 

 extent of the damage, at the option of the in- 

 sured. Heretofore this option has been exer- 

 cised by the company, but the new law gives it 

 to the insured party. 



A fish bill was also passed by the Legisla- 

 ture, which places the matter of stocking the 

 streams of Missouri with choice food-fishes 

 under the supervision of three Commissioners, 

 who are not to receive any compensation for 

 their labors, but are to have their actual ex- 

 penses paid. An appropriation of $3,000 is 

 made for a hatching-house, and a suitable agent 

 to have charge of it, the spawn and fry from 

 this establishment to be distributed in the 

 waters of the State. The act contains severe 

 prohibitions against the wanton killing of fish, 

 and the taking of fish by wholesale by means 

 of nets and traps. A Commissioner, who had 

 been acting during the previous year, obtained 

 from Iowa two hundred thousand salmon- 

 eggs, and with the assistance of gentlemen in 

 various parts of the State, distributed them in 

 the Missouri and its tributaries, Spring River 

 and its tributaries, the Lamine and other 

 streams of Cooper County, the streams that 

 head in the neighborhood of Pierce City, and 

 the lakes and streams of St. Louis County. 



The temperance movement received more 

 than usual attention in the Legislature, which 

 seemed disposed to assist it by increasing the 

 difficulties in the way of obtaining a license to 

 sell liquors. A bill passed for the government 

 of cities of the fourth class provides that " no 

 license shall be granted to keep a dram-shop or 

 tippling-house until a majority of the tax-pay- 

 ing citizens shall sign a petition for such license 

 to be granted, which petition shall be filed 

 with the city clerk." Cities of the fourth class 

 are those having a population between 500 and 

 6,000 ; they embrace the greater number of 

 considerable towns in the State. In the opin- 



ion of the Attorney-General, the term "tax- 

 paying citizen " in the statutes means every 

 person, male or female, who owns property in 

 the block, square, city, or township in which 

 the dram-shop is sought to be located, which is 

 subject to taxation. Whether the taxes on the 

 property have been paid or not is a question 

 that has no pertinence. Persons who pay only 

 a poll-tax are not such "tax-paying citizens." 

 So that the County Court which grants the 

 licenses has no authority to grant such license 

 unless the petition therefor is signed by a 

 majority of the owners of taxable property in 

 the block, square, city, or township in which 

 the dram-shop is desired. Neither, in his opin- 

 ion, can the Court make an order for the re- 

 newal of a license in anticipation of its expi- 

 ration. For "the sale of intoxicating liquors 

 is by law illegal ; it is not a privilege of the 

 citizen. The right to sell can only be acquired 

 by complying with the law. One who does 

 not possess the qualifications prescribed by the 

 statute can not acquire that right. (Austin vs. 

 Bate, 10 Mo., 591 ; State ex rel. Kyger vs. 

 Holt Co. Ct., 39 Mo., 521.) The qualifications 

 which an applicant for license must possess 

 are, that he has not heretofore sold intoxicat- 

 ing liquors on Sunday or been convicted of any 

 of the violations of chapter 68, or that he has 

 not sold intoxicating liquors to a minor with- 

 out proper permission, etc. How can the Coun- 

 ty Court know in December that a person who 

 then has a license to keep a dram-shop will 

 possess them on the first day of February fol- 

 lowing?" 



Several bills were introduced to regulate the 

 sale of liquor by druggists. They had their 

 origin in the complaint that in many towns 

 the suppression of regular drinking-saloons has 

 converted the drug-stores into tippling-places. 

 The withholding of dram-shop licenses by a 

 county court or a town council does not mean 

 any material decrease of liquor-drinking, for 

 the unlicensed drug-stores supply drinkers all 

 the spirits they want. The State Auditor sug- 

 gested the propriety of requiring the proprie- 

 tors of drug-stores to take out a dram-shop 

 license. He stated in his report that many 

 drug-stores were "unlicensed tippling-houses." 

 Mr. Anderson of Marion asserted that "drug- 

 stores were doing more to promote intemper- 

 ance over the State than the saloons." Mr. 

 Eiley of Buchanan declared that "the drink- 

 ing of the greater number of young men begins 

 in drug-stores." It was urged in favor of re- 

 quiring the license that the sale of spirits by 

 druggists deprived the State of a considerable 

 portion of the revenue it had a right to exact 

 from the sale of spirits ; and that it was unjust 

 to dram-shop proprietors who pay for a license 

 to subject them to the competition of druggists 

 who sell without. On the other hand, it was 

 said in reply that it was only a small minority 

 of the drug-stores in the State that were ob- 

 noxious to the charge of being unlicensed tip- 

 pling-houses, and it would be unfair to make 



