Holding Saloon-Keepers Accountable
The verdict against the Cincinnati saloon-keeper, who sold liquor to a confirmed inebriate, is in the interest of justice and good morals. The Adair law, under which the widow of a drunkard may sue the saloon-keeper who sold liquor to her husband after she had warned him to desist, would work a needed reform if it were adopted in other States. In this case the widow secured $5.000 damages. Nearly every one, in his personal experience, has known such cases—men who had lost all power of self-control, and who were only kept sober by a compact among liquor-dealers not to sell them drink. If such an arrangement can be enforced by law, so much the better for the family of the inebriate.