Protection Of Minors

If tha youth of our State do not grow up with habita of temperance and sobriety it will be no fault of the law. In additiou to the general statute prohibiting the sale of liquors, distilled or brewed, to minors, and to drunken persons and habitual drunkards, etc., which requires every seller to give bonds for the payment of daraages and rnakes it the duty of officers and citizens to enforce the same, another act was pasBed at the late session (No. 92, page 72), which is as follows : An Act relative to Belling, furnishing, or allowing intoxicating liquors to niiuors uador the age of eighteen years. Seotion 1. The People of tha State of Michigan enact, That every person who Bhall by hiraselt', or by any clerk, servaut, agent or employé, sel!, gire, or furnish, oí cause to be sold, given, or furnished, any intoxicatlng, spirituous, malt, brewed, or fermentcd liquors, eider, or wine, or auy liquor or beverage any part of which is intoxicatlng, spirituous, malt, brewed, or fermented, to any minor under the age of eighteen years, ana every peraon who shall bimaelf, or by h3 clerk, servant, agent, or employé, permit or allow any such liquor, eider, wine, or beverage, to be sold, furmshed, or given to, or be drank by any such minor, in nis or her store, shop, saloon, restaurant, bairoom, or place of business where Buch liquors or beveragoB are kept, turnished, or sold, sliall be lia ble for both actual and exemplary damages therefor, to the father, mother, guardián, or master, or any person standing ia place of a parent to such minor, in such sum, not Iess than fifty dollars in each case, as the court or jury shall determine ; except a druggist upon the written request of a parent, guardián, or master of such minor, or upon the written prescription and request of a regular practicing physician : Provided, That the physician making such prescription shall not be the druggist himself, nor a member of the firm of druggists selliug such liquors, nor an employé of such druggist or firm. But if any druggist shall f urnish, Bell, or give to any such minor any such liquor more than once upon the same written prescription or written request, he shall be liable in damages therefor as aforesaid, and to the extont aforesaid in each case. Sec. 2. The damages in all cases provided for iu this act, together with costs of suit, shall be recoverable in action of trespass on the case before any court of competent jurisdiction. And in any case where parents shall be entitled to such damages, oither the father or the mother may sue alone therefor. But recoïery by one of said parties shall be a bar to a suit brought by the other. Approved May 3. 1877. It will be well for parents, guardiaus, druggists, and saloon keepers to study the above act. We have not the most unbounded confidence in law as the best instrument in the education oí the young or in the forma tiou of their habita, but we hare no possible objection to its being called in to prevent the saloon keeper from undoing the work of the parent and the home oirole. The law will take effect August 22.