Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1872-01-19
LIQUOR Licenses.

January term of the court among other things
presented % follows:
We also recommend thet no liyodses
should boagrapted to retail sliquor IN tho
County, aslSwe consider all such shops as pub.
lio3naisanoss ia any community aud yesy
corfupting In all there tendencies and effects. !"
Such an expression from the grand inquest
OF county merits the commendation and
adoption ,f every well wisher of the human n
race. There is no greater evil than lieuor
shop. There is no greater enemy to every in.
dustrial enterprise thun one of thoso man
traps There is no greater distu, Der of social
gatherings and domestic peace than these hell
holes, nor is there surer destroyer of all
moral and religious influences for good thon
the licensed tapstcrs. 1t has always been
strange to US, that the same officers are
authorized to create and provide for paupers !:
that they, who alone oan license whiskeSy
shops, where pnupers are manufactured, p,ust
provide them food and shelter at the expense
OF the taxpayers; that they, who license tn ese
breeders Of crime, must assoss the tax to de.
fray the expenses Of the trial and punish
ment Of offenders. Any one, who will trace
up the confessions of persons executed in the
United States for the last twenty years. will
find that nineteen out of twenty attributed
their ruin and untimefy end to liquor The
evil too is Increasing at a fearful rate. From
oil parts of the civilized world, we read &C.
counts ofmurders, suicides, ~rsons, burgluries
and every conceivable crime, aud 10 nearly
every ""'e we find, the demon which prompt,
cd the conception and execution of the crime
come forth from one of these licensed shops.
Ihey beset as Legitimate children ignorance,
'dlcness, profanity, crime and denth. They
destroy the general prosperity and peace of
every community, corrupt the government,
increase tho taxes, not to speak Of the injury
to the individual in undermining his constitu
tion, weakening his physical system, impair.
ing his reason and judgment and debasing his
soul Is it not timo the people of every
county should speak through their authorized
agents that these sources of inquity shall
no longer be tolerated. Are they nuisanoes,
evil in their tendencies and effects Surely.
do they accomplish any good evil only
DO they benefit the farmer or manufacturer
or merchant or any Of the worthy avocations
in life! On the contrary do they not divert
from these oalliugs tho money, which should
and would besexpended fol food anl clothing
and education for the family, into the till of the
tapster, leaving the purchaser poorer not only
in cash but in moral character and physical
strength. DO they create anything7 We
had nearly said, no, but they do, and what,
we will leave a keeper of them to answer.
Many years ago company Of tradcsmcn form
ed or wished to form themselves into a
mutual benefit society, aud each one
had to relate what he could contribute
to its support. After the carpenter,
blacksmith and others had answered sat.
isfactorily as to the value and utility of their
products, sprucely dressed individual asked
admittance as a member, when the following
colloquy occurred:
"And what are you"
"I am rumscller" a..
"a rumseller and what can you do?
81 can build jails and prisons and poor
houses" .i
''And is that all p
"No can fill them. T can fiji your
Jails with criminals, your prisons with con.
ycts, and your poor houses with paupcrs."
"And what else can you do?' y
81 can bring the gray hairs of the aged to
the grave with sorrow; I can break tho heart
Of the wife, and blast the prospects of the
friends of talent, and fiji the land With more
than the plaugucs of Egypt"
= "ls that all that you can do2
"Good heavens!' cried tho rumseller, is
not thut enough" These are the legitimate
fruits of rumshops, and is it strange the Grand
Jury should denounco them as nuisances.
which should be suppressed. Again from
tho very necessity Of the case growing out of
the manifold evils to church, State and socie
ty produced by intemperapce, the cause of
temperance reform has taken strong hold of
the hearts Of the people. We see a memo.
rial has been presented to Congress asking
the passage of national prohibitory law
The old order of the sons Of temperance is
being revived in the South and is receiving
the endorsements Of the press and better Dor.
tlon OF the people. And now counties arc
beginning to speak against the liquor traffic
through their grand inquests We have for