A Verdict Against the Liquor Seller
ANOTHER suit under the civil damage act has ended in a verdict adverse to the liquor seller. A saloon-keeper appeared at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., court-house last week as defendant in a suit brought by the wife of a drunkard. The woman saw her husband go to the saloon on a Sunday morning last fall, and she followed him and begged of the proprietor not to sell him any more rum. He refused her entreaties, and her husband got drunk and went back to his home, where, maddened by liquor, he beat and kicked the poor woman in a most shameful manner, planting the heavy heels of his coarse boots in her side repeatedly. She suffered serious injuries, and she sued the saloon-keeper for damages, bringing her husband as a witness. The judge charged the jury that the fact of the illegal selling being admitted, and also that it occurred on Sunday, the statute gave the plaintiff a legal right of action. After a short absence the jury returned with a verdict for plaintiff of $525. A few more verdicts of this character will, it may be hoped, render the venders of the poison more attentive to the entreaties of distressed wives.