Excerpt from Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Alabama, During the December Terms, 1882-83, Vol. 73 The words of a statute are to be understood in their po 11lar signification, when nothing appears to the contrary. Etc. W inter, 29 Ala. 651; Thurman State, 18 Ala. 276; Favers Glass, 22 Ala. 621. To dispose of, in popular sense, when used in reference to property, means to part with the right to, or ownership of it; in other words, a change of property. If this does not take place, it would scarcely be said the property is disposed of. That would not be the popu lar sense in which those words are employed. Taking a glass of spirits or wine with a friend or Visitor, in one's own r-esi dence, is one of the forms 10 which hospitality not infrequently shows itself. We are not dealing with the morality, 01 hurt fulness of the custom. That is not a judicial question. We are endeavoring to arrive at the intention of the law-making power. In this (possibly i11j11rio11s)actof hospitality, we ap prehend no one would entertain the thought of a change of property, or ow ne1ship - that he was thereby disposing of the article thus used and consumed. Quite as appropriate would it be to affirm that the host had disposed of the viands his friend consumed, while enjoying a hospitable dinner with him. We would not be understood as afii11ning that no disposition can be made, under the statute we are construing, except by bargain and sale. A gift, consummated by delivery, works as complete a change of p1opert1' 01 Degrees ownership as does a sale on valuable consideration. What we declare is, that the act, shown in the evidence in this cause was not a disposing of the liquor, within the contemplation of the legislature. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.