Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1885-11-26
THE ATLANTA ELECTION.

On yesterday closed the most remarkable
local contest ever carried on in any South
ern city, when Atlanta, Ga, decided by
ballot whether the sale of liquor shall be
prohibited within the limits of the city or
not. For ten years temperance agitation
has been carried on in Georgia, which has
so far succeeded that now out of 1877 coun-
ties of the State the sale of liquor is allow
ed in l5 These Is counties are the seats
of large cities where the liquor element
has large property interests at stake. The
principle by which the agitation was car
ried on is known as that of "local option"
1t has been broached in each community
as moral and police measure, thus meet
ing the support of both political parties,
both colors and the entire moral element of
society. 1t was not until this movement
reached the large cities, where large prop
erty interests were at stake, that any serious
opposition was met. These local option
elections were held under special Acts of the
Legislature. The business interests oflarge
cities werealways strong enough to prevent
the passage of such local option Act so far
as they themselves were concerned. Hence
the Legislature passed general local op-
tion bill, under which ordinaries of coun-
ties were required to order an election up
on the petition of given number of citi-
zens. The first city to which this was ap-
piled was Atlanta. An election on the
question was ordered by Ordinary Calhoun
on the petition of $500 voters to take place
November %. Then began the canvass,
which has since developed the most remark
able features. The highest vote ever cast,
even in Presidential year was little over
five thousand. The registration in this
election has run up to nine thousand. The
Prohbitionists organized a strong commit
tee backed by nearly all the preachers in
the city, with Senator Colquitt, District
Attorney B. H. Hill and other prominent
men actively at work. The brunt of the
battle, however, has fallen upon the shoul-
ders of the Rev. J. B. Hawthorne, the cele-
brated Baptist preacher. The Rev. Sam
Jones, Col. Sam Small, Rev. Atticus G. Hay
good, Rev. w. Fl. FELTON, and others, have
for ten days been addressing audiences of
from five to eight thousand in the "Sam
Jones' gospel tent" The anti-Prohibition-
lists have been equally active, being led
by julius Brown, a son of Senator Brown,
Hon. Albert Cox and many others. They
have been particularly active in committee
work. The most remarkable feature of the
campaign has been the breaking up of the
party and color lines. The meetings of both
parties were attended by white and black,
and earnest efforts were made by both
sides to capture the colored voters. For this
purpose not onlv did speakers of both sides
address large bodies of colored men, but
they have imported prominent colored
speakers, such as Bishop Campbell, of Phil
adelphia, Pa, Bishop Turner and Exon
gresham Jeff Long. The ladies also took
up the contest with vigor. In a word, ev-
cry element of society, all ages, sexes and
colors, were stirred up and nothing else was
talked of but prohibition. The result Of
the election is not yet known here, but the
general feeling is that if Atlanta goes dry,
the movement will spread rapidly through
out the Southern States.