The Rhode Island American, And General Advertiser

[Communicated.]

There has been something said in some of the papers in this town about retailing Spirituous Liquors. There is one point in the business that deserves the serious attention of the body who hold the power of granting licenses, and of all others who desire the well being of society in this respect. It appears to have been the practice to sell liquors to the Jail in this town for a long time past—one would suppose that this would be the last place in which the privilege of dealing out trouble and destruction to those unfortunate persons who, through poverty or crime, have been obliged to satisfy the demands of the law, in being made tenants of this unwelcome abode, ought to be permitted. The inmates of the jail are, generally speaking, a class of unguarded, intemperate people, who perhaps have, the most of them, fallen into their troubles by intemperance and its train of consequent evils. Thus the temptation to this same evil, should be held out to them after they have come to this situation, is certainly contrary to the dictates of reason and humanity. It is really to be wished that this practice, so full of evil, might in future be prevented, either by withholding the license, or by the passage of a law by the Legislature, prohibiting it altogether.