USA > Iowa > Story County > A history of Story county, Iowa: Carefully compiled, from the earliest settlement to the present, March 1, 1887. > Part 30
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1
1
2
40
Richland.
1
1
2
81
Sherman.
1
1
1
1
4
30
Nevada
11
1
1
2
1
7
586
Grant
1
2
2
1
6
500
Palestine ..
1
3
.
4
Union.
1
1
2
78
Indian Creek.
1
1
2
133
Collins .
1
1
2
37
Total each denom.
12
|11
1
32383 .. 5
2
41|4068
SENTENCE OF SALOON-KEEPERS.
Hon. N. M. Hubbard, District Judge of the Eighth Judicial District of Iowa, in passing a sentence upon some liquor-dealers for violation of the prohibitory law of the State, said:
"While there are greater crimes known to the law which are punishable with great severity, are none which involve more of those qualities known as despicable meanness and audacity than the selling of intoxicating liquors.
"There is something in the taking of human life by violence so instantaneous that it shocks and terrifies the minds of all, and yet we look upon the man who takes human life quite as surely, but by a slow, lingering process-if not without condemnation, at least with horror. You who stand before the court for sentence are in
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1
2 1100
Franklin.
New Albany
Washington
in County.
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HISTORY OF STORY COUNTY, IOWA.
. every moral sense murderers, and you are within the spirit, if not the letter, guilty of manslaughter; for the law says that whoever accelerates the death of a human being unlawfully is guilty of the crime. Your bloated victims upon the witness stand, and who undoubtedly committed perjury to screen you from the law, not only abundantly testify that you are accelerating death, but that you are inducing men to commit still greater crimes than your own.
"You are still in living idleness and eating the bread of orphans watered with widow's tears. You are stealthily killing your vic- tims and murdering the peace and industry of the community, and thereby converting happy, industrious homes into misery, thriftless poverty and rags. You are sowing the seeds of ignorance, idleness and among the generations to come.
"Anxious wives and mothers watch and pray in tears nightly, with desolate hearts, for the coming home of their victims, whom you are luring the smiles of the devil into midnight debauchery.
"You are persistent, defiant law-breakers, and shamefully boast that in defiance of the law and moral sense of the community you will continue in your wicked and criminal practice.
"And finally, let me entreat you, if you are not lost to sentiment of humanity, to desist from your criminal, vagabond traffic, and betake yourselves to some honest calling for a livelihood, and you may yet become virtuous, useful citizens, and entitled to the respect of a Christian community; while if you persist in this way your own ruin is certain, and you will receive, as you deserve, the exe- cration of mankind.
"You may think that the sentence of the court is harsh and unjustly severe, but the court assures you that, compared with your crimes and the desolation you have already brought the commu- nity, it is mild in the extreme."-(1875.)
OFFICERS' TEMPERANCE LEAGUE-ORGANIZED BY THE PRESIDENT.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 .- General Sherman has issued a general order from the headquarters of the army, in which he says: "The President is much concerned to find before him for action the pro- ceedings of the courts martial in several cases where officers have been tried for violation of the thirty-eighth article of war, which provides that any officer found drunk on duty shall be dismissed from the service. The President desires it to be known to the army that he cannot be led to underrate the magnitude of the evil of which the crime alluded to is likely to produce in the public service. No person addicted to it can expect to be entrusted with any responsi- ble duty, and a person who cannot be trusted had better not be continued in office. It must therefore be understood that any clemency which may have been heretofore extended by the mitiga- tion or commutation of the sentence cannot hereafter be relied upon as a basis of hope for a like favorable action. After this sol-
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HISTORY OF STORY COUNTY, IOWA.
emn warning a rigorous execution of the sentences imposed in due course by the courts martial may be expected."-State Leader .- (Nov. 21, 1877.)
TO THE PEOPLE OF STORY COUNTY.
Does it pay to have scores of workingmen poor, ragged and financially ruined in order that one saloon-keeper may be dressed in broadcloth and flush of money? Does it pay to have fifty men live on bone-soup and half rations in order that one saloon-keeper may flourish and feast on roast turkey and champagne? Does it pay to have the mothers and children of twenty families dressed in rags, and almost starved, and living in hovels, in order that the saloon-keeper's wife may dress in satin, and her children grow fat and hearty, and live in a bay-window parlor? Does it pay to have a citizen in jail, to be supported at the public expense, because another sells him liquor? Does it pay to have hundreds of homes blasted and ruined, defiled and turned into hells of misery and discord, in order that one liquor-dealer may amass a large for- tune? Does it pay to keep men in the penitentiaries and prisons, and men, women and children in the poor-houses, at the expense of the honest, industrious tax-payers, in order that a few capital- ists may grow richer by the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquor? Does it pay to permit the existence of a traffic which only results in crime, poverty, misery and death? It never pays to do wrong. Our sin will find us out whether others find it out or not. The sin knows where you are, and will always keep you posted of that fact. It does not pay. PETER BAKER.
The Watchman .- (June 5, 1878.)
In his instructions to the Grand Jury of Marshall County, last week, Judge Henderson expressed an opinion, touching the assured validity of the amendment, which the Marshalltown Times-Repub- lican pronounces the ablest and most lawyer-like yet rendered on the vexed question.
THE RAILROAD AND SALOONS-OPINIONS OF THE MANAGERS.
GRINNELL, Iowa, May 22, 1882 .- Ed. State Register :- Being requested to learn the views of railway officials as to our prohibit- ory amendment, I can report in part. At an early stage of the discussion my opinion was that no good railway manager in Iowa would be averse to the amendment, and I have sought in vain to find one, but affirmatively we have four great thoroughfares across the State with several branches. One company has forbidden the sale of intoxicating drinks in its buildings, on its grounds, or its use by employes on duty.
Another forbids, as manager, trainmen from entering a saloon on peril of dismissal, and is thus an outspoken servant of the pub- lic, whom I have repeatedly heard declaim on the demoralizing influences of the saloon.
A third said to me with emphasis: "I wish you God-speed-
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HISTORY OF STORY COUNTY, IOWA.
there are no railway interests promoted by the saloons." This was a calm and decisive utterance.
The fourth remarked: "I would put the license up to $1,000 each-$5,000 would be better. Our great peril to trains and losses have come by drinking. There is nothing to be said in their favor every business man knows."
These gentlemen, in charge of more than $100,000,000 of. prop- erty, and with nearly twenty thousand men on their pay-rolls, cannot be called fanatics, or of one idea, and employes in every branch of the service and rank may know the mind of their chief. What a spectacle it would be for gods and men to see one of them walking up to vote against a principle which means safety to rail- road trains! Dividends on the investment, and mere comforts to the employes and their families, less temptation to thousands of young men, and good to every material interest, and a thousand- fold more in the elevation of character.
Still in the faith of thirty thousand majority after reading Sen- ator James F. Wilson's speech very strong and to the point. Right is right. Yours, J. B. GRINNELL.
(May 31, 1882.)
The following paragraph from Friday's Regisier furnishes excel- lent material for the temperance plank that will be needed in the Republican platform of the coming fall campaign in Iowa: "The the temperance people of Iowa know how to achieve what they want, and they have the power needed to achieve it. Their first step will be for statutory prohibition, and they will win that in the next Legislature. As to constitutional prohibition, that is also « sure, although it may be a little more distant. Indeed they have that already, and all they need is a Supreme Court to recognize and enforce it, and that will take less than two years' time. A people or party who can have statutory prohibition within a year, have no reason to feel cast down .- (May 2, 1883.)
JUDGE HENDERSON'S CHARGE TO THE GRAND JURY ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL PROHIBITORY AMENDMENT.
IT TOOK EFFECT JUNE 27, 1882-UNLAWFUL TO SELL WINE OR BEER SINCE THEN.
District Court convened in regular session on Monday last, Judge H. C. Henderson on the bench. One of his first duties was his charge to the Grand Jury, in which, in treating of the Consti- tutional Prohibitory Amendment, as to when it took effect, etc., he uses the following language:
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HISTORY STORY COUNTY, IOWA.
"It is made my special duty to call your attention to infrac- tions of the liquor laws of the State, and to direct you to investi- gate such cases and indict where you have or can obtain sufficient proof to warrant an indictment. Since the last term of this court the law, on this subject, has been changed by the adoption of a constitutional amendment, commonly known as the Prohibitory Amendment. This amendment was adopted and went in force at the close of the special election of June 27, 1882, since which date it has been unlawful to sell beer and wine the same as any other intoxicating liquors. There seems to be a diversity of opinion in the profession as to the effect of the adoption of that amendment, and the proper practice arising under the law since the amendment was in force. It is my duty to advise you on this question in the first instance, and upon a very careful consideration of the sub- ject, I have concluded that since June 27th last, it is not only un- lawful to sell beer and wine, but the sale or keeping for sale these varieties of intoxicating liquors is subject to the same penalties as the sale or keeping for sale other liquors. The statute by its terms originally prohibited and now prohibits in terms the traffic in all intoxicating liquors. After the statute went into effect the legislature incorporating a proviso by which beer and wine were excepted from the operation of the law. By the adoption of the constitutional amendment this proviso and exception were abro- gated and set aside, and now the law stands in full force against the excepted liquors as well as all other intoxicating beverages. The repeal of the exceptional provisions can, in my opinion, only operate to bring the excepted liquors under the condemnation of the law, and the amendment of the constitution has the same ef- fect, I think, as would a legislative act repealing the exceptional clause. So you are directed to bring in indictments against all per- sons who have been engaged in selling or keeping for sale in any place or building in the county, any intoxicating liquors, includ- ing ale, wine and beer, but as to ale, wine and beer, only since June 27th, last .- (Aug. 23, 1882.)
THE CLARKE BILL BOILED DOWN.
1. Action for injunctions shall be brought by the district or county attorney. If he refuses, then by any citizen. General rep- utation of a place shall be accepted as evidence.
2. Temporary injunctions shall be granted by judges in court or vacation without bond.
3. The violator of an injunction is liable to summary punish- ment under the laws of 1884.
4. The penalty on conviction of keeping a nuisance is a fine of $300 to $1,000, and the defendant cannot purge himself under the poor debtor's act.
5. A nuisance may be abated by removing all fixtures from the 20
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HISTORY OF STORY COUNTY, IOWA.
building and closing the building for one year, unless sooner released.
6. The owner of the building may secure its return on giving bond for the value of the property that the nuisance shall remain abated.
7. The possession of liquor without lawful permit, whether in a saloon or private dwelling is presumption that it is kept for un- lawful purpose.
8. The penalty for a second conviction is three months to three years in the penitentiary.
9. The unlawful transportation of liquor is a fine of $100 for each offense, and jail until the fine is paid.
10. The penalty for concealing the contents of a package by false mark is $100, and police officers have power to break suspected packages.
11. All property of defendant, except the homestead, is liable for fines and penalties, and may be confiscated therefore .- Capital -- (April 21, 1886.)
Hon. J. A. Harvey, President of the Iowa State Temperance Alliance, and chairman of the executive committee, spoke at Kelley, the twenty-seventh of June, upon the work and object of the Alliance, etc., after which he organized an Alliance there, with twenty-two members, and for officers, appointed A. Wortman, President; Elmer Keeney, Vice President; John J. Wiltse, Secre- tary; and David Raymond, Treasurer. The name is the "Kelley Temperance Alliance," which will meet the first Tuesday night of each month, for the transaction of business, declamations, reading of essays and anything, in fact, fostering and encouraging prohi- bition and total abstinence. These meetings are public, and we cordially invite all to come, who will behave well. SECRETARY. -Ames Intelligencer .- (July 1, 1886.)
Judge Stutsman is reported by the Clinton Herald to have given rebuke to a law evading body of city ordinance makers, in words burning with the eloquence of truth, and fitting close to the hides of culprits outside the cage. Sentencing one more unfortunate, a Democrat, who, under the license of a city council, was caught in the act of "promoting sobriety and suppressing free whisky" on the Democratic plan, was fearless to say: "If I was a member of the city council I would come to the rescue and pay the fine of a man like this. I think it is a shame for a city like this to hold out inducements to men to violate the law and the order of the court. Here is a bottle of whisky and the affidavit which are clear proof of his guilt. All this grows out of the fact that the city has induced this man to take out a license with the implied understanding that he can violate the law which will land him in jail. If I were the city treasurer I would not sign such a license. I feel humiliated that the city council has brought this upon this man, and I hope they will come forward and help pay the fine." Defendant fined $500 .- Ames Intelligencer .- (July 15, 1886.)
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HISTORY OF STORY COUNTY, IOWA.
Saturday last there was a drunken carnival in Ames. Our re- porter observed three cases, and only a small section of Main street had been heard from at that hour. Where does the "budge" come from? Who keeps open saloon in Ames? Who sells the "hard cider" (?) that makes the drunk come. Man's disregard and defi- ance of law seems to be on the rampage. Will men never cease to want to break the law because it is the law? And have they no realizing sense of their responsibility to God for debauching men's souls and bodies? He who willfully violates the laws of his country is not a good citizen, and a community is justified in driving him forth. The drunkard-maker is worse and more dangerous to society than the unfortunate intoxicant who staggers through our streets. We have pity for the drunkard and sympathy for his distressed fam- ily, but we have no pity, no sympathy, no respect for the creature that deals out the liquor that sends husbands, fathers and brothers reel- ing through our thoroughfares. These violaters of the law should be boycotted by every decent man and woman in the community. They are vipers, whose sting is as deadly as the rattle-snake's, and should be shunned as we would the poisoned fangs of the reptile. -Ames Intelligencer .- (Oct. 21, 1886.)
AN APPEAL.
MADE TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF STORY COUNTY BY A COMMITTEE OF LADIES, ABOUT 1874, AND MADE BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE W. C. T. U., MRS. MARY M. ALLEN, OF NEVADA, VIZ:
"Honorable Gentlemen of the Board of Supervisors:
We are here as a committee sent by the W. C. T. U. to entreat of you not to grant permits to those who have petitioned for the right to sell intoxicating liquors. We come with the law in our hands, page 280, section 1529. First, We claim to be residents of the county and have an interest in the prosperity and welfare of its citizens. Second, The persons applying shall be of good moral character.
Now the question is whether this is an employment which a man of good moral character would be, or ought to be, engaged in. Is it such a business as the citizens ought to approve? Is it such as your conscience and sober judgment can approve? Is it such? Is it such as your God and Judge will approve? When we know it is not to benefit our neighbors, nor promote public health, or morals, or happiness-but for the sole purpose of making money. We feel and believe that it don't pay to permit the existence of a traffic which only results in crime, poverty, misery and death; which
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HISTORY OF STORY COUNTY, IOWA.
never did, never does, never can, never will do any good. That it don't pay to have our active, intelligent boys transformed into drunkards, thieves and criminals, to enable one man to lead an easy life by selling them liquor.
To reduce the question to a narrow compass and a nice point, is it right to permit a man who, for the sake of gain, will engage in the sale of poison ?"
The parties petitioning for license to sell intoxicating liquors failed, at this session of the Board, to get such permits.
INGERSOLL'S
ARRAIGNMENT OF ALCOHOL.
Col. Robert G. Ingersoll in addressing a jury in a case which in- volved the manufacture of alcohol repeated the following terrible arraignment of the demon. No one can gainsay its truth and no one can read it without a shudder:
"I am aware that there is a prejudice against any man who man- ufactures alcohol. I believe that from the time it issues from the coiled and poisonous worm in the distillery until it empties into the jaws of death, dishonor and crime, it demoralizes everybody that touches it, from its source to where it ends. I do not believe that anybody can contemplate the object without being prejudiced against the liquor crime. All we have to do, gentlemen, is to think of the wrecks on either side of the stream of death, of the sui- cides, of insanity, of the ignorance, of the destitution, of the little children tugging at the faded and withered breast of weeping and despairing mothers, of wives asking for bread, of the men of ge- nius it has wrecked, the men struggling with imaginary serpents, produced by this devilish thing; and when you think of the jails, of the almshouses, of the asylums, of the prisons, of the scaffolds upon either bank, I do not wonder that every thoughtful man is prejudiced against this damnable stuff called alcohol. Intemper- ance cuts down youth in its vigor, manhood in its strength and old age in its weakness. It breaks the father's heart, bereaves the do- ting mother, extinguishes natural affection, erases conjugal attach- ment, blights parental hope, and brings down mourning age in sor- row to the grave. It produces weakness, not strength; sickness, not health; death, not life. It makes wives widows, children or- phans, fathers fiends, and all of them paupers and beggars. It feeds rheumatism, nurses gout, welcomes epidemic, invites cholera, imports pestilence and embraces consumption. It covers the land with idleness, misery and crime. It fills your jails, supplies your almshouses, and demands your asylums. It engenders controver- sies, fosters quarrels and cherishes riots. It crowds your peniten- tiaries and furnishes victims for your scaffolds. It is the life blood
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HISTORY OF STORY COUNTY, IOWA.
of the gambler, the element of the burglar, the prop of the high- wayman, and the support of the midnight incendiary. It counte- nances the liar, respects the thief, esteems the blasphemer. It violates obligation, reverences fraud and honors infamy. It de- fames benevolence, hates love, scorns virtue and slanders inno- ence. It incites the father to butcher his helpless offspring, helps the husband to massacre his wife and the child to grind the parri- cidal ax. It burns up men, consumes women, detests life, curses God, despises heaven. It suborns witnesses, nurses perjury, defies the jury box and stains the judicial ermine. It degrades the citi- zen, debases the legislature, dishonors statesmen and disarms the patriot. It brings shame, not honor; terror, not safety; despair, not hope; misery, not happiness; and with malevolence of a fiend calmy surveys its frightful desolation and unsatiated havoc. It poisons felicity, kills peace, ruins morals, blights confidence, slays reputations and wipes out national honor, then curses the world and laughs at its ruin. It does that and more. It murders the soul. It is the sum of all villainies, the father of all crimes, the mother of all abominations, the devil's best friend and God's worst enemy.
AT WATERLOO, IOWA.
The Presbytery adopted the following resolution unanimously and with enthusiasm:
Resolved .- That the Presbytery of Waterloo is in favor of the entire destruction of the traffic in intoxicating liquors as a bever- age, and to secure this end we pledge our hearty support to those men and those measures which will secure the legal prohibition of said traffic throughout our State.
The Ladies Presbyterial Missionary Society held a very interest- ing meeting Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday evening a praise Missionary service was held. Addresses were made by Revs. T. S. Bailey, State Superintendent of Home Mission work, Wm. Bryant, of Grundy Center, Andrew Herron, of Albion, and Mrs. Van Hook, missionary from Persia. All the addresses were ex- cellent. Mr. Herron made the last address, and roused the audi- ence to the highest pitch of enthusiasm in closing with the senti- ment that we shall have, in Iowa, a school house and a church on every hilltop, and no saloon in the valley. The music led by the fine choir of the church was most excellent, and the singing was joined in heartily by the congregation, which completely packed the house .- (October 10, 1883.)
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HISTORY OF STORY COUNTY, IOWA.
GOVERNOR LARRABEE'S TEMPERANCE PROCLAMA-
TION.
STATE OF IOWA,
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT.
To whom these presents may come-Greeting.
WHEREAS, The people of this State at a non-partisan election, held on the twenty-seventh day of June, A. D. 1882, expressed themselves in favor of prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage; and,
WHEREAS, The Twenty-first General Assembly amended the law to secure universal enforcement; and
WHEREAS, A very large number of persons are petitioning for pardons and remissions of fine for offenses committed under such law;
Now, therefore, I, William Larrabee, Governor of the State of Iowa, relying with confidence upon the loyalty and true Christian spirit of our people to sustain all measures adopted for the promo- tion of the general welfare, do, under the pains and penalties of the law, warn all persons engaged in the illegal sale of intoxicating liquors to desist from such unlawful practice, and I do hereby give notice that willful violators will hereafter have no claim to execu- tive clemency. And I call most earnestly upon all good people of the State to aid, to the best of their ability, in the inforcement of the law.
Especially do I call upon all temperance societies, and other bodies organized for kindred purposes, to realize the necessity for " new energy in their labors.
Let the priests, ministers teachers and the press use their best efforts to enlist the moral forces of the State in this cause. Let the judges, attorneys and other officers of the courts be painstaking and persistent in enforcing the law, both in letter and in spirit. Let the sheriffs and peace officers be fearless, vigilant, and let the mayors and other municipal officers awaken to new zeal in their efforts to secure its observances.
I exhort all citizens to lay aside partisan differences, and by united and determined efforts banish the dram-shop from Iowa.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused to be affixed the great seal of Iowa.
Done at Des Moines, this third of May, A. D. 1886.
By the Governor:
WILLIAM LARRABEE.
FRANK D. JACKSON, Secretary of State,
AN UPRIGHT JUDGE.
The Des Moines (Iowa) Register says: "One of the first decis- ions affirming the constitutionalty of the new prohibitory law comes from the ablest Democratic judge in the State, Judge Bur- ton, of Ottumwa. A test case was recently submitted to him, ask-
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HISTORY OF STORY COUNTY, IOWA.
ing for a permanent injunction against operating a large brewery at Ottumwa, which was manufacturing beer without a permit from the County Board of Supervisors. The owners of the brewery set up the defense that the law was unconstitutional, inasmuch as it violated the provision of the United States Constitution, which says: 'No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law.' The further defense was made that all the beer now' being sold had been manufactured prior to July 4th, when the law went into effect. These are the grounds which the opponents of prohibition generally rely upon as sufficient to establish the unconstitutionality of the law, hence the importance of Judge Burton's decision. The Judge decides that the law is constitutional, notwithstanding the defense alleged. He takes the ground that the Legislature has the right to enact laws prohibit- ing the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors whenever in their judgment such prohibition is best for the interests of the whole community. He declares that this right is acknowledged by an unbroken line of authorities, and is not an open question .- N. Y. Witness .- (Sept. 24, 1884.)
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