The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1885-01-08
A vital Issue to the People CT This
Town and County.

of who shall be chosen to fill these
important places of trust will be the
all-absorbing topic of thought and
conversation. But there is right
now q question confronting this
people compared with which
the mere choice of public officials, in
the ordinary sense of that function,
sinks into utter insignificance. OF
course we do not mean by this to
place a light estimate upon the
privilege and duty of every citizen
to see to it as far as in his power
lies that honest, capable, sober and
faithful men, and these only, are
honored with official trust,-but the
question to which we allude is
paramount because it under
lies this, and because it is
fraught with greater and more far
reaching results for good or evil
We refer to to the liquor question.
THE LEADER does not exaggerate
the matter when it says to this peo-
pie that the time has come for
them to close with and throttle the
whisky business in this county or it
will destroy them. We are no
alarmist, no enthusiast and no
fanatic, but We say in cool and de-
liberate earnest that the time has
come for action. No reasoning man
who has stood upon our streets for
the past few weeks as the Editor of
this paper has and witnessed the
drunkenness and decentralization
among the farmers, mechanics,
and laborers whose earnings make
mercantile employment desirable in
this city-can fail to see that liquor
is sapping the foundation of oul
business prosperity and making the
already hard times harder still. Il
is no exaggeratlon to say within the
last thirty days we have observed
fifty of the most capable and best
disposed farmers and mill men o
Lincoln under the demOralizing and
deenergizing influence of the whisky
of the Brookhaven saloons-"not
drunk and down" or boisterous ant
disorderiy, it is true-but whose rec
and swollen faces, inflamed anC
sleepy-eyes, thick tongues and nov
and then uncertain steps told all TOT
plainly that they were the victims
Of strong drink and that neithe
time nor money was counted in Thu
scale.
Nor do the entertainments o
the whisky business of Brookhavel
stop with drawing into the drink
shops the laborcrs and farmers whc
constitute the bone and sinew o
Brookhaven's legitimate trader, bu
among the drunkards we have re
Gently noted as the outcome of thi
infamous traffic were two of Lin
coin county's officials who hav,
been elected to attend to the PEG
pies business. Sober, they are boil
splendid men and good officers, blu
the love of whisky is one of thei
weak points, the tempter comes along
the saloon is at hand and-they fal
and they and the people are tht
sufferers. AS an outgrowth of it al
indictment by the grand jury will
probably follow with possibly {
special election to fill their places
for all of which the people must pay
Within the last year whisky has
even invaded the grand jury room
itself. causing no little amount O
trouble and resulting in the dis
charge of juror for drunkenness.
These things we have mentioned
merely to give an idea of what is
going OLA tenth of the evils grow,
ing out of the liquor business in oul
midst has scarcely been limited at
Let the business men of Brook haven
as we'll as the farmers, mechanics.
and mill-men and laborers, who are
the direct losers, give this subject
the consideration its Importance de
mands and prepare TO act upon it as
reasoning and reasonable men. 1t
must be met one way or the other
and that soon.
In conclusion THE LEADER wishes
to state that it has no war to make
Oh any individual in the whisky
business in Brookhaven. We have
not the least ill-feeling toward any
of them and there is not one that,
if it were in our power, we would
OF tomorrow set up in a more
remuneratiye and a more respectable
calling-but it is their present bust
ness and its evil effects we are con
Il