The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-08-25
TALKS LIKE HE KNEW,
Some Wichita Man Tells what He Knew
About Prohibition. at Arkansas City.

Dick Howard of the Arkansas City
Traveller, ran onto a genuine Wichita
man this time sure, according to the
way he sizes the thing up in the fol.
lowing interview, taken from yester.
days issue of that paper.
"A gentleman who was in the city
yesterday from Wichita was interview
ed by Traveller reporter on the ques-
ton Of closing the joints. He said
1T cannot be done. They are making
strenuous effort; the hardest posi-
BILE fight is being made to shut up the
open saloons, but they still run. They
are being driven from public and open
places, with some pretense Of decency
and taste, in furniture and fittings,
into holes in the walls, blind tigers,
back rooms and hidden places but
they are still running, and the condi-
lions are much worse. The boot-legger
been gone during the past regime, now
multiplies and fiourishes like mosque
toes in a swamp. They abound in the
alleys. They keep rooms with bottles
in them, and the tip of a wink to one
of them will give a man a drink of the
most villainous compound that ever
tied knots in mortal's throat and
disgraced the name of whiskey. Aw-
full doesn't express ii, but it makes the
drunk CONT quick and that's what
some people want. And then there
are the clubs; they are springing up on
every hand. They run from the high
toned and elegantly furnished places
where the members pay large iniation
fee and have private cupboards. with
a colored servant to serve the drinks,
To the places where for fifty cents
a man can get his hide bowling full Of
rot gut that leaves dark brown
taste in his mouth for two weeks. Yes.
we are having lots of un, and LIQUOR
drinking is, l think, more prevalent
than ever, and will continue to grow
under the present system. There is no
use talking about stopping it. When a
man wants a drink, he gets il, and
where. as in Wichita, the majority of
the people are against the enforcement
of the law. you might as well try 10 har
ness cyclone and plow corn with it
as to try to enforce the law. Either
would be equally successful. The pro-
law is a bowling. screaming
farce, as is any law which attempts
to deal with what man considers
his private habits. and such Will be
the case until mans built on a different
plan. Iowa tried il ten years and drop
ped IL. Maine has tried il for fifty
years. and from personal knowledge
5 know that in Maine il is not enforced
and never has hfeen. Any like law
IL Impossible OF enforcement We have
a law. with heavy penalties. against
the social evil. Is il enforced? Expe-
rience has demonstrated that enforce
ment Is absolutely impossible and ever
will be. II is a dead letter on the stat
ute books. as is the prohibitory law
Any attempt to regulate individual
and private desires and habits OF man
by legislation is. and always will be
4 dismal and compile failure. The
result of trying TO drive the prostitutes
from Wichita is only driving them
from one district TO another. Ii is
them all over town and the
-esult can only be that they will pur-
sue their nsfarious calling and perhaps |
proSelyte young girls 10 II. where under |
he cloak OF innocence, scarlet women |
nave secured employment as servants.
No. sir: Wichita is worse of now than
[ was before and when the present /
'pasm has spent its strength there will |
,e an enormous bill OF costs 10 pay and |
worse than nothing accomplished. |
Some officers will make fat fees: the |
oints Will run; the houses OF ill-farne |
viii flourish and there viii be an i'm
nense freight bill TO pay-aai the /
,eople-well-the people will pay the
reight- That will be the end. and the I
,eopie viii aske themselves what was 1
{ all for?' And echo will reply. What
The gentleman requested that his name
,e withheld, but he is on the inside
nd knows whereof he speaks" /