Beyond Their License

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Aug 7, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 30.

Beyond Their License.

THREE saloon-keepers in Chicago were found guilty of selling liquor to minors, and the following is the address of the judge who sentenced them:—

“By the law, you may sell to men and women if they want it. You have given bond and you are licensed to sell to them; no one has a right to molest you in your legal business, no matter what families are destroyed or rendered miserable; no matter what wives are treated with violence, what children starve or cry over the degradation of a parent; your business is legalized and no one may interfere with you in it. No matter what mother may agonize over the loss of a son, or sister blush for the shame of a brother, you have the right to disregard them all and pursue your legal calling; you are licensed. You may fit up for your lawful trade, you may use all your arts to induce visitors; you may skillfully expose to view your choicest wines and captivating beverages; you may then induce thirst by all contrivances, producing a raging appetite for drinks, and then you may supply to the full, because it is lawful; you have paid for it; you have a license. You may allow boys, almost children, to frequent your saloons. You may hold the cup to their lips, but you must not let them drink—that is unlawful. But while you have special privileges for the money you pay, this poor privilege of selling to children is denied you. Here the parents have a right to say: Leave my son to me until the law gives you the right to destroy. Do not anticipate that terrible moment when I can assert for him no further right of protection; ’twill be soon enough for me, for his mother, for his sister, for his friends and the community to see him take his road to death. Give him to us in his childhood at least. Let us have a few years of his youth, in which we may enjoy his innocence, to repay in small degree for the love we have lavished upon him.

“This is something you who now stand prisoners at this bar, have not paid for; for this is not embraced in your license. For this offense the court sentences you to ten days' imprisonment in the county jail, and that you pay a fine of seventy-five dollars and costs; and that you stand committed until the fine and costs of this prosecution are paid.”