His innocent boy with this his father’s guilt;
Nor on his broken-hearted wife look cold,
As though his leprous sin defiled these poor
And helpless sufferers.  Then he prays that all
Would lend their aid to root intemperance out,
And crush the horrid haunts of sin and ruin,
Where liquid poison for the soul is sold! 
And while the victims of this deadly traffic
Must bear the penalty of crimes committed,
Even when the light of reason has been quenched,
That you would frame a law to reach the tempter,
Nor let those go unscathed who cause the crime. 
And then he prays, most fervently, that all
Who may, like him, be tempted by the bowl,
Would lake a warning from his fearful fate,
And “touch not, taste not” make their solemn pledge,
And so he parts with all in charity.

[A pause—­the sobs of the prisoner’s wife and
sister are heard.

CRIER OF THE COURT. 
Silence!

CLERK OF THE COURT. 
Prisoner, stand up and listen to the sentence.

            JUDGE BOLTON (solemnly). 

Laws hitherto are framed to punish crime
All legislators have been slow to deal
With vice in its first elements; and here
Lie the pernicious root and seeds of sin. 
That children are permitted to grow up
From infancy to youth without instruction,
Is a grave wrong, and ne’er to be redeemed
By penal statutes and the prisoner’s cell. 
We leave the mind unfortified by Truth,
And wonder it should fill with wayward Error. 
There’s no blank ignorance, as many dream;
Each soul will have its growth and garnering. 
As the uncultured prairie bears a harvest
Heavy and rank, yet worthless to the world,
So mind and heart uncultured run to waste;
The noblest natures serving but to show
A denser growth of passion’s deadly fruit. 

    Another error of our social state—­

We charter sin when chartering temptation. 
We see the ensnarer, like a spider, sit
Weaving his web; and we permit the work. 
How many souls Intemperance has destroyed,
Lured to his den by opportunities
The law allows!  The prisoner at the bar
Is one of these unhappy instances. 
The testimony offered here has shown
He bore a character unstained by crime. 
Nay, more—­an active, honest, prudent man,
Prisoner, you have appeared, since you came here
Five years ago.  You came with us to share,
In this free land, the blessings we enjoy;
Blessings by law secured, by law sustained;
The impartial law that, like the glorious sun,
Sends from its central light a beam to all,
And binds in magnet interest all as one. 
And you had married here, and were a father
And prospered in your plans, and all was well. 
Nay, more—­’tis proved you had a generous heart,
And had been kind to your poor countrymen,
The homeless emigrants who gather here,