The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1873-07-10
The Good of the Tupper Law.

The Good of the Tnpper Law.
One thing we desire to commend Judge
Cooke for. He has addressed himself to the
task of promoting temperance and good be-
havior among the people, by urging the en-
forcement in his circuit of what is known as
the '"Tupper law" This law requires that the
vendor of ardent spirits shall have a tavern
license and keep rooms and beds for travellers,
and stabling and provender for horses, and, if
enforced, would break up ninety-nine out of a
hundred of those shops and bar-rooms where
men squander the money which should go to
the support of their wives and children, and
where in Intoxicating and maddening drinks,
health, intelligence and honor are wrecked,
and the seeds planted which bear the fruit of
murders violence and every foul crime known
to our criminal court records. We grieve over
the sad change which has come upon our coun-
| try, the terrible decentralization which meets us
| on every hand and the slack views now enter
tanned or professed by men who formerly acted
upon the principles and instincts of honor. We
Justly contemn those miserable miscreants who
have crept in amongst u.s. spreading tide of
corruption, prohigacy,. robbery and stealing
under or without the forms of law. Politicians
who can increase the public debt s., 900 or
100000 in the course of four or five years,
without having single thing to show in the
way of public Improvements; who have bank
rupted, blighted and tainted all the institutions
of the State, are, of course, source of unmit-
igated evil, and should be universally secuted,
and will be held in everlasting contempt But
there is another evil of immense magnitude, in
which our own people are equally involved
with others. Many have forgotten the duties
they owe their dependent families, and all the
charities of home and kindred, and have turned
their backs upon the decencies, amenities and
courteses of life. This. degradation of char
acter, this ruin of talents, this wretchedness OF
families, this crime towards children, are the
effects of alcoholic drink, mostly imbibed at
public places. There is no good in scolding,
and We would treat the habit of using intox-
eating liquors to excess with every judcious
leniency In many cases it is disease inhe-
rent in the constitution. In others, it il the
result of generous feelings, and of nature
rich in social and personal charms. Those who
are the soul of good fellowship are the most
apt to be betrayed into it. 1t sometimes be-
comes almost irresistible through force of cir
cunstances, as formerly in the army service, in
sorrow, poverty, distress and bereavement. 1t
may in many ways be excused, but can never
be justified AS we are cast measurably in the
mould of surrounding circumstances, it'makes
a vast difference whether they favor or discour-
age the use of ardent spirits. A little country
store, advantageously placed in the midst of a
population prone to guzSling, can in the fall
season, perhaps, sell 1000 gallons of vile'whis.
key at more than 100 per cent. profit. The
dealer pockets $1,000 or more, and the poor
wretches who give him their earnings soon
come to want and sickness, and their families
are pinched for the necessaries of life, till the
next season of crops. But for the liquor shop
their condition would be good and prosperous.
They work faithfully, they make crops, but
they squander the proceeds foolishly, and
wretchedness is the consequence. As in the
country, so it is in the towns and villages. In
these the resorts for drinking are little more
gilded and refined, but the only object is to
make them more attractive to the thoughtless
and unwary Thousands drop into these pit
falls and are ruined.
Now, the Tupper law imposes condition
upon the vending of what Charles Lamb calls
liquid damnation, for which, in the absence of
something better, we ought to be thankful: 1t
amounts to prohibition in many cases and To-
calities, and, of course, to the improvement OF
the condition of society where it is put into
force. Some months ago, the bar-rooms in
Anderson were all closed under this law, and
what was better, the citizens followed it up
with electing to the municipal offices men who
were opposed to granting licenses to sell ardent
spirits within the corporate limits. Good order,
sobriety, industry and peace are the consequence.
in that town, and a drunken man IS rarely If
ever seen in it. We perceive that the grand
jury of Abbeville County pay tribute to the
zeal of Judge Cooke in prohibiting illicit
traffic in intoxicating liquors, and commend the
County Commissioners for refusing all licenses.
They rejoice that there is not now licensed
grog shop in Abbeville County, !outside, of in
corporated towns. What has been done in
and snsG met sae such cordial recognition can likewise
be done throughout the State, if other Judges
will see their duty in the same light which
Judge Cooke has seen his. If man sets up
his banner of liquor trade, let him be required
to take proper care, or to have the means at
hand of taking proper care of the victims to
the wretched habit to which he panders, and
out of which he makes living 1t is check
which we should be glad to see applied all over
the country Columbia Ph@niG.