Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1879-02-06
For the Yorkville Enquirer.
ssTHE TOWN REVENUES

a. t-.- For the Yorkville Enquirer. e., .i'
"THE TOWN REVENUES"
1t is one thing to say what should be done,
and it is easy to say it anonymously; but
it is quite another thing to act in any given
case under sense of public responsibility.
Moreover, finding fault with the action of mu-
nicipal bodies is so common everywhere, and
has always shown itself more or less IN ork-
vile, that many worthy citizens, who ought
to serve our community either as lntendant
or Wardens, have declined to be candidates
from an over-sensitiveness, or dread OF un-
kind criticism. Hitherto, no complaints have
been made in print. But your correspondent
s'T,'' in the last ENQUIRER, seems to think
that the present Town Council deserves pub
lie castiqation, and he has taken upon hlmse1
the task or pleasure Of administering 1t. NOW
as a failure to notice his article might have
been construed as treating it with silent con-
tempt, or as acknowledging it's arguments y
as unanswerable, will, with your permission,
say few words in reply. But in the outset,
so far from deprecating any criticism, private
or public, of any action of public officers, L
regard it as always in order, very desirable,
and as constituting the very life and health Of
body polite. .
/ will furthermore premise what have TO
say with the remark, that so far as the writer
is concerned, and he thinks he can speak Tor
his colleagues, they have ceased long ago to
try to please everybody, and in their recent OF
remote actions had no private interests to SUBJ
serve, but simply looked to the public good.
If they fail in their intentions, the failure
should be attributed to the common lot OF
mankind-error IN judgment.
As 1 understand the communication OF
s'T,n even he does not charge improper mo-
tive. unless the obscure allusion to the ''hand-
writing on the wall'' squints in that direc-
ton: but he thinks the members of the Coun-
Gil ought to k,,o,c better and he wishes to send
them to school, at the expense of the town, all
the way to Fort Mill. Well, perhaps our peo-
pie would not be satisfied, on our return, with
the education acquired there for according to
oT's'' own showing at said proposed school,
three hundred citizens pay $1,000 for their
,chisku and beer, over and above the expense OF
maintaining the two saloons, which, L sup
pose would amount to about 50, 400 more.
Now, Yorkville, with more than four times
the population, sustains only two bar-rooms at
$3.50 each one having closed, because, as as
serted, it would not pay the owner with IL
cense at that price. So far, our town Will
compare favorably with any of our nelghbors.
But if ''T'' will inform the writer, achen or
ho,c the lesson can be learned-hOw, by any
legislation, men can be kept from drinking in
toxicating liquors as a beverage-he will 60
there at his own expense, and devote the rest
of his life to bring about such result. 1t
would have been much more in the shape OF
an argument against our action in this matter
to have shown that $3.50 for license is below
the average in the State or country but that
would have been impossible, as little inquiry
would show. .,.
The other b,ybear or "agony" as he terms
it, with CT is the ordinance establishing
market" More indirect taxation" enrich
ing ''middle men, at somebody's expense, "a
meat famine or what not, 80 disheartens him,
that he thinks it useless to argue the case !;
nevertheless, he contends that our people will
have to pay from half a cent to four cents
pound more for their meat than they have done
hitherto Well, if it even were true that
market ordinance raised the price of fresh
meat tritie above the average for the year,
heretofore paid, who would not, even on that
condition, prefer to know with some certainty,
when and where he could get his meat in just
such quantities as suited him? But CIT" has
no cause to be alarmed. 1t is useless to spec
ulate or theorize in the face Of facts Accord
ing to an old saying ''the proof of the pudding
is the eating thereof" Now, although this is
new measure in Yorkville, it is no innova-
tion
This sspudding," has been dished up from
s'time immemorial" to thousands Of commu-
mites, and so much to Ssir ultimate satisfae-
tion, that none of them have ever sent it away
again. Can we find town Of any size III all
this broad land, where its citizens have not
established by law, for their convenience, a
regular market? l could fill a column OF your
paper with sound arguments on this question,
but it is not necessary. The working Of the
ordinance will commend itself; and 1 venture
the assertion, that when fairly tried, like the
fence or stock law, it will convert it's strong
est opponents into advocates. But if some
how, the results should be different here than
elsewhere, and the end aimed at should be
missed, then at the worst, the present author
ity will only last about a year, and the OBJ
noxious law can then be repealed, if not soon
er To condemn it, however, with less than
a twelve months trial, embracing all the
seasons, would hardly be fair. And though
''T" be ever watching with grim satisfac-
tion" to see who will be hurt, he will proba-
bly, be disappointed in finding that nobody is
hurt, but rather benefited in all that time
But if still not reconcied to the present Or
der of things, when another election approach
es, especially if he should discern signs Of
another Handwriting on the WALL" let him
then exert himself and shape public opinion,
50 as to have things his own way. II the pub