Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1881-05-05
A TEMPERANCE COUNTY.


quainted with the injustice done him.
A TEMPERANCE COUNTY.
No county in Georgia had more still house
and barrooms to the number of inhabitant
than Carroll twenty years ago. Drinkin
places were not only to be found in the littl
town, but also at the crossroads and countr
places throughout the county. No NOR
unfavorable place could have been selecte
than this county, 1t was settled by clas
of citizens who regarded plenty of corn whis
ky and peach brandy as essential to goo
living. Liquor was sold without scruple AM
drank without stint. Many of the peopl
spent all their means beyond bare living
for strong drink. Education and churche
were neg glected Ignorance and vice pre-
vailed to such an alarming extent that tn
very name of the county became by.wor'
and reproach in the State it was called tn
"free State of Carroll" The better citizens
going from the county, were ashamed t.
acknowledge where they were from. Th
county of Carroll was once synonymous will
still houses, chicken fighting, horse swapping
pony. clubs, one x-carts, poverty, piney wood
and ignorance. -.
The first move toward prohibition in thi
county was made at Bowden. In the very
act by which the town was Incorporated wa
a clause prohibiting the sale of whisky in 81
many miles of the place.
In 1868, DR.. w. w. Pitts moved to Car
rollton, the county seat, and began at once
the abolishing of the whisky traffic by law
He stood we'll nigh alone for several years
With an energy that never tired, and deter
mination that never faltered, he worked on
He was foiled frequently by the liquor men
but he never gave up the struggle. Other
men moved into the town, and united theil
intelligence with his. They managed the
prohibition movement with great prudence
and tact. They did not organize for one
year. After an election at which they were
defeated by the liquor men, they did moi
abandon their hopes but began to work for
another election. By keeping organized all
the time, they conserved their forces, and
though they did not succeed for several
years, they were all the tine educating pub
lie opinion. Thus they prepared to hold the
field when they won it.
In Carrollton the temperance men worked
twelve years without success. In 1875, a bill
was passed by the Legislature prohibiting
the sale of liquor in the town.
In spite of opposition and abuse, the tenn
perance men succeeded, and with results that
are marvellous.
l. The trade of the town has been more
than doubled. Before the liquor traffic was
abolished the trade of the place was about
100000 year, now it is S500,00O year
There are thirty stores in town, and do not
know of a single merchant among them who
would not vote against the liquor traffic on
purely business grounds. Mr.. John W.
Stewart, who has made fortune here, says,
as a business man, that be would not have
liquor back for any consideration. Some OF
our leading merchants we're opposed to pro-
hibition at first because they feared that it
would injure their trade. They are unani'
imously in favor of it now. The $4,000 that
was spent here for whisky prior to 1876 is
now spent in building houses, improving
stock, draining lands, and paying taxes. The
farmers are nearly all out Of debt. Many OF
the men who were spending all Of their money
for whisky have quit drinking and are max,
ing support for their families.
g. The argument that men would drink
anyhow does not hold good but with very
few. Perhaps there are in every town some
few men who have drank so long that they
are slaves to the habit. Such men would
send off and get whisky. and drink anyhow.
But we have learned that, with nearly all
the people, whisky is like watermelons-the
supply creates the demand. Do away with
the supply and there will be no demand, as
a general thing. BY prohibiting the sale OF
liquor in the towns of Georgia we will soon
have a generation of young men who will
have no desire for it whatever.
3. We have two drug stores here but not
particle of liquor is sold in either of them
The leading druggist here told me that he
kept alcohol in the store; but he used it
only for tinctures. An attempt was made by
one of the druggists to sell bitters but the
grand Jury soon found 50 many true bills
against him that he promised the people OF
the town if they would ask the judge to be as
merciful in his fines as possible, he would
never sell another bottle of bitters or drop
of whisky.
4. In moral point of view, the results Of
this movement in our town have been pefect
ly remarkable. The solicitor of this judicial
circuit says there is less crime in this county
than any other county in this circuit. Most
of the people have Joined the church. Pro
family is almost unknown. On the train that
comes daily into Carrollton, not an officer OF
trainhand on it ever swears an oath.
The soberness and quiet which prevail
here, even on election days and court weeks,
strike visitors as being wonderful. At bar
bacue here last year, though there were to-
gether about four thousand people, Col
Thomas Hardeman, who spoke on the occa
sion said that he never saw drunken man
He regarded it as something almost new IN
der the sun. A committee Of good men re-
vised the jury-box, leaving out the names Of
those who habitually drank whisky. The
county has been electing, for the past twelve
years, DR.. D. B. Julian, ordinary, who will
not grant license to sell liquor anywhere III
the county, for love, or threats, or money
He has done a grand work for the county
and so could every ordinary if he would.
The prohibition movement in this county
is grand success. Three fourths of the
white people in Carrollton are opposed to the
sale of whisky and nearly the same proper
ton in the county Christian Statesman.
SIEEP.-There is no fact more clearly es
tablished in the physiology of man than this
that the brain expends its energies and itsel
during the hours of wakefulness, and that
these are recuperated during sleep. If thf
recuperation does not equal the expenditure
the brain withers This is insanity. Thus il
is that in early English history persons who
were condemned to death by being prevented
! fron, sleeninn alwavs died ravinp maniacs