Mexico weekly ledger., 1888-06-21
Prohibition as II Appears In the
State of Kansas.
TO the Editor Of the Ledger.

State Of Kansas.
To the Editor Of the Ledger.
MEXICO, Mo-, June 1S.-The last
few months l have been selling
goods in "a portion of Kansas, and
have been doing business with
the drug trade, grocery trade, etc.
| have found how they do business
in the liquor traffic. There is a
drug man in Girard, Kansas, who
sells what he calls "Wood's
Tonic" which is a very poor
whisky. No one says anything to
him or bothers him. He is not
selling whisky, but a "tonic." /.
asked him where he got the word
"Woods'''from and he seemed sur
prised that l should have come
from Missouri and not know that
name. Iaskedno more questions. l
asked a man w~ell-known in Mex
leo, who is in business at Pitts
burg, Kan, formerly from Wells
vile, where he got his beer. He
said that I could get beer in five
different places in Pittsburg, but it
was not known as beer. We i'm
mediately proved that what he said
was true. The town of FIT. Scott
is full of billiard halls and restau-
rants and club rooms. / am per-
sonally acquainted with six of
them and SO well acquainted with
one of their owners that he told me,
June 10th, that his receipts on
Saturday, June 9th, were over
$500, and you know that no restau-
rant can do such business legiti-
mately. The express compan-
les there, Adams and Pacific, say
that there has been as high as %
kegs of beer come by express to
different people at n shipment,
besides an endless quantity of
case beer. Now, / know these
things to be facts, and there is no
hearsay about them. The town
nor State derive no revenue from
such people, and yet they have
their liquors ''just the same"
These are not the only cases that
l can sight you to, but can tell you
of a dozen such cases in Missouri,
where they have adopted the
Wood Local Option Law /; and l
can assure you that / do not know
of a single town that I go to that
have adopted the ''intemperate''
law-Wood Local Option-but
what you e a place that does
scarcely any business, and if the
people had to vote on the question
again, it would go wet by a large
majority, for the ease there is
just as much whisky drank by the
citizens and they derive no benefit
from it; and, again, farmers who
"stand in" go and buy a pint or
quart and 60 behind the house and
drink it all, where, if they could
go to a saloon and get a drink they
would take one drink and 60 out,
would go home sober instead
of drunk, and would get something
that would not give them the jim
jams in "a hours. Whisky is made
and is bound to be used just as
long as it is made and SC long as
the United States derives a benefit
from it, why not cities as well. In
Clinton, Mo-, on last Thursday,
June Ia, a grocery store had a keg
of beer on tap, which was free for
all who bought groceries from
it. 1t was in a back room and
no one went in but whose who
were all right, i. c., people who
would not give them away. They
are customers of mine and, of
course, / was asked to partake.
Such things as this are going on in
every town that have adopted the
Local Option Law. More drunken
ness because they r compelled to
buy more liquor at a time, and
consequently must drink more to
get rid of it. l could fill up your
whole paper with instances of this
kind, but space forbids, and / trust
that the sober-minded people of
Mexico and they that have the well
fare of the city at heart, will
weigh well the experience of other
places and will cast their vote to
license saloons in Mexico, and
thereby derive a benefit from them
when it is in their power to do SO.
Very Respectfully, S. HI,