The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-02-08

better goods. Mr.. Miller says he has sold
more than ever in his life, and of better
class goods, and to cash buyers. He says
the poorer classes buy three times as
! much as they ever bought, and almost
| entirely for cash.
Mr.. Rhodes testifes-and, by the way,
he has one hundred thousand dollars in
houses, and not one vacant, and lie gets
more rent than ever before out of them
he says that the purchases the year are
almost three times as much as he ever
| sold before, and that he gets five times as
much cash from the classes he deals with.
So of all the furniture dealers-ask them.
Walter Wood states that his Saturday
nights trade in selling stoves and cook
| ing utensils, which used to be about $40
or S15, is now S75. A. P. Stewart and
Hunnicutt e. Bellingrath confirm this.
Ask them!
I could weary you with testimony like
that. I have score Of notes from pros
porous merchants, on this table, telling
how their trade has MISUNDERSTANDING
that in everything that makes homes
happy, that makes the women and chill
profit the buyer and his friend, and the
community he lives in, that the trade has
increased, and that this years increase
over last is simply phenomenal, and that
is owing to prohibition. [Applause.l
Why, the East Tennessee road brought
nine million pounds of freight into Allan
ia in August, 1887, over August, 1886.
This was one month. Nine million
pounds increase Of freight brought to
Atlanta over the same month in 1886.
This is prosperity by the record.
| See what the increase on the other roads
has been. Here are the figures, as shown
l lNxy dc Dos1, Tz-~
office:
He was converted against his convic-
tions.
Mr.. Grady turned and caught sight OF
Judge Hillyer, whose face was beaming,
and having occasion to ask the judge a
| question, said:
"By the way, doesn't tho Judge look
happy to-nightp whereat the audience
/ cheered heartily, and the judge laughed
and looked happier than before.
Mr.. Grady continued:
MIR. Riordan was an anti-prohibitionist
in the last race. He came into Colonel
Maddox's office-by the way, Colonel
Maddox's Office seems to be sort of a
place for them to come. Mr.. Riordan
says: II was an anti-prohibitionist on
principle" A personal liberty man, I
suppose-"but I work from go to 100
men, and I have seen change that, as an
honest man, loving my fellow man, 1
dare not disregard, and 7 am for prohibi-
| tion."
Ladies and gentlemen, how can you
answer such as that? I am not a pro
found lawyer. I don't know how much
personal the liberty I have got sometimes
iwish had more Hooking with smile at
Mrs. Grady, who sat in the audience,
that is purely personal matter to which
we need not allude further--I don't want
any profound knowledge of law that
such facts appeal to me.
Colonel Maddox did not vote in the last
election until the last moment. He be-
lieved prohibition was impracticable and
visionary. He might haye had the per-
sonal liberty touch. He was not going to
vote, and his wife said-and the wife is
nearly always the best half of the two,
and is in this case. His wife said: "My
dear, you vote to-day; we have boy"
he voted under protest, he did not be-
lieve IN lit was new tangled. Six
| months afterwards he was sorry he voted
forit; looked like the town had gone to
ruin; but to-day he Is wise and intelli-
gent man. and he has looked about him
and heard what people say, and seen the
town prosper and thrill with a growth
grander than she ever felt before, and he
is dyed-in-the-wood prohibitionist.
Mr.. Rucker was the same way, and is
ready to work night and day for prohibi-
ton.
Do you know J. C. Allen /? Those who
do not are behind. He was an anti-pro-
hibitionist; he was so strong an-arti-
prohibitionist that he would not let his
oother-in-law-not his mother-in- law
talk to him on the subject. He did not
want to discuss it. He had little dry
goods store next to q saloon. Prohibi-
ton was voted in, and he has prospered
since in spite of himself, which reminds
me of distinguished Frenchman who
was kicked upstairs. The saloon was va
Gated owing to circumstances over which
the owner had no control. It did not
look we'll vacant, and Mr.. Allen rented
it and where the old red-eye used to
stand, he put up calico, and to-day he is
doing splendid business, and people
who used to 60 there to buy their body's
injury and their souls damnation. 90
there to buy ribbons and dresses for their
wives and little ones, as good men ought
to do.
"Seeing all this" I said, show can you
be an anti ?" and he says:
81 amt; have changed, and I am dry
as powder horn"
On Decatur street there were twenty
three bar-rooms where thereare now four
winerooms in what you might call the
last extremities. ALI except one are oc-
cupied by grocers, drygoods stores, boot
and shoes shops, or by some sort of busi-
ness that builds up a man in place of a
traffic that tears him down. Where is
the paralysis of business? Four saloons
and nineteen stores doing business in
place of twenty-three barrooms.
have told you in getting evidence of
improvem ent or deterioration in city that
you must 60 to the working classes.
Especially is this true of Atlanta, because
this is the third city in the United States
in the proportion of workers to popula-
ton. Lawrence, Mas, leads with 81 per
cent. Of her population wage earners,
Lowell follows with 40 per cent, and
Atlanta and Fall River tie for third place
with AZ per cent.
Now here is class of people represent
ing in the workers of number fory-
seven per cent. Of the entire population.
Add the women and children who do not
work, and we see this class represents
sixty or seventy per cent. Of our popula-
ton. If have shown that this class is