The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1886-12-30
ProhlbItIon An Kansas.
New York SUM-


Tho social clubs, the GermAnla clubs
and the various club-like lodges have all
been savagely repressed in Kansas. One
by one they have been broken up until
few remain in the state. It is highly prob
able that all of them will be closed in the
near future. In truth, there is a sober sat
isfactlon among Americans over the sup
preston of the Germania associations.
One of my friends expressed this feeling.
He said: "If we cannot meet and play
porker and drink whisky in our club
houses, we have the satisfaction of know
ing that the froth-blowing, beer guzzling
Germans cannot gather together on Sunday
and prose about the beauties of the Rhine,
and play sixty-six for q cent q corner
and sing about swallows homeward flying,
am fully repaid for the loss OF fun and
excitement which followed the closing Of
our club by seeing the Germans kick"
Ii is true that many OF the druggists in
Kansas are really liquor dealers, but they
sell by the quantity, and it Is not, except
in rare instances, drunk on the premises
There Is q rapidly growing sentiment
among the voters that the drug stores in
which an almost wholly liquor trade is
carried on shall be closed. II is almost
certain that the probate judges who were
elected last November Will revoke many
permits, and will TesolutelY decline to re-
new many others when they expire. The
men who have been selling beer to their
fellows TO cure corns, felons and sore eyes
are goiog to be squelched, or the probate
judges who neglect to carry out the wishes
of the people will be defeated when they
again come before the voters. The Kan
sas prohibitionists are In dead earnest,
and they are In the majority.
Has the enforcement of the prohibition
law diminished the consumption of liquor
| in Kansas? l unhesitatingly answer, yes.
Ia the three years which followed the en-
actment of the law of 1881 more liquor was
drunk In Kansas than in any other equal
period. Then men resented the state in
terfering with their personal liberty OF &C
tion. They drank just to show the prohi-
bitionists that liquor could be bought.
Now the novelty of breaking the law has
worn away. Men know that they can get
liquor If they want it, and will take the
| trouble 70 sign q statement or application
and present 1t TO the druggist. They will
not take the trouble. l did not see q
drunken man during four weeks stay in
Kansas. Before the days of prohibition
would have seen fifty drunken men in that
time. To-day farmers who may want q
glass of beer or q drink of whisky when
|
for q bottle OF beer, or to pay 90 cents
for half q pint OF whisky. 1t
they could buy ten cents worth OF beer
or whisky, the liquor would stimulate
their generosity, or recklessness, and they
would then spend money freely tor more
liquor. The cost of the first drink deters
them from INDUCING IN liquor, and farm
ers, who, before the adoption Of prohibi-
ton, almost always got drunk when they
visited the county seAts, now 90 home So
Der. No druggist dare give them the first
generosity drink, and they will
not buy It.
The saloons In all Kansas towns, ex-
cepting those In LeavenwOTth and Dodge
| City, are closed. It is safe TO assert that
the saloons IN Leavep worth will be closed
within six months. They have been at
tackled. At first the juries will ac9uit,
then they will disgree, and then they will
render verdicts TO the evidence. Dodge
Citye That is q town wholly given over
| to the devil. No man can foreten what
will occur in that sinful citv.
FRANK WILKEsoN,