THE TRADE IN POISON.
{"newspaper_name": "The Washingtonian.", "edition": "01", "page": "p2", "byline": ""}
{"character_count": 2430, "word_count": 452, "ccnet_language_score": [0.9706000089645386], "ccnet_perplexity": [937.0999755859375], "fasttext_language": ["en"]}
Death is an awful visitation to all who be-
hold it. Even the funeral Of an utter stranger
appals the heart of the passenger, as he fixes
"a gaze of horror on the symbols Of grief that
denote the passage of a soul to another world.
In the family circle, what so heart-dsmayng
as death! Is the Father dead? Oh! what
tears deuge the hearth.stone of the domestic
monarch. Is it the Mother? Still more tender
and narrowing are the groans and lamentations
that swell the bosoms Of the afflicted! Is it
the son, the daughter, the sister, the friend |?
Still the heart bleeds, the eyes dim, and the
voice chokes with suffocating grief.


"What caused his death 7"


"It was brought on by drink For the last
den, where fend in human shape traffics in
poison"


"Then you mean to say he was poisoned3"
"Yes, certainly, by Rum. You see the
sign The house is licensed; in Chestnut.
street, too"


"Then his death was caused by the rum
seller. Ought he not to be made to indemnify
his family for the loss of their head?"
Yes, in justice this ought to be, but not
in law. The man who keeps the poison den
has license to kill. The law authorises his
business"


"Then you mean to say that the law au-
thorises murder"


II does. do not make the assertion, but
facts establish it. The law authorises the
vender of poison to kill his victim. You cam
not prosecute him for it, because he pleads his
license. If he killed him with pistol or a
dagger, it would be murder. But when he
only kills by poison, and by slow degrees, it
is not crime, because the law allows it."


"And is this the morality of Christian
country?"
eyes, and it is more than that. 1t is the
religion of christian country; for these dealers
in poison have the exclusive privilege to kill
on the Sabbath day. No honest trade is per-
mitted by the laws on that day; but rum deal
ing is the pet business of the Sabbath, because
on that day they can murder more than any
other"


"Then you mean to say that murder is en-
couraged on the Sabbath day"


"Such is the fact. Look and examine for
yourself. 1t is not my assertion, but melan-
choly fact. Look! You see another funeral
coming down the street. 1t is that of youth
of 10, who got intoxicated on Sabbath day,
went boating, and was drowned while bereft
Of his senses by poison. Who was the muir
derer?"


"Unquestionably, the vender of the poison"


"But the law!'


True; society was an accessory before the
fact."-PhI Sun.