to know what character of sentence I was going to give to these persons. I told them it was not proper for me to receive any suggestions out of court, and if they had any to make it must be made in open court in the presence of the defendants themselves or their counsel. I did, however, give the matter very grave and serious consideration. This law in its spirit and in its letter was intended to prohibit the sale or establishing or keeping a place for the sale of intoxicating liquors, other than the wine and beer excepted by the provisions of the law. The slight fines that had theretofore been imposed for this offense had simply been tolerated, and amounted in practice to a system of licensing these violations of the law. I felt it my duty to do something that should prohibit what the law prohibited. After the trials were all over I had the defendants all brought into court and gave them my views concerning the law and concerning the duty of every good citizen to obey and observe the law strictly and in good faith; that this law existed upon the statute books by the same authority as the law that protected them in their persons and in their property, and that the disregard of it was simply to set at defiance the authority from which all our laws eminated. The man who kept the poorest and meanest of these saloons I fined only the sum of one hundred dollars, stating as a reason therefor that the witnesses upon the trial had said they were ashamed to be seen in his saloon and hurried away as soon as possible; that probably the class of men of whom he was making drunkards were not our most valuable citizens. I graded the fines against the others of the sixteen according to the class of persons I thought they were injuring, and the highest fine I imposed was five hundred dollars, against the man who had taken the trouble to prove in the trial that he kept a most respectable resort and that none but the very best citizens of the city were in the habit of drinking at his bar. This action upon my part not only created an excitement locally, but the news of it spread rapidly throughout the state and a number of our district judges followed my example. [Illustration: _Charles Clinton Nourse_ From an air brush copy of an old photograph loaned by D. W. Nourse, Kenton, Ohio]