The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-11-18
Queer Sort OF Prohibition,

COLUMBIA, Nov. s.--A great many OF
those who will come to the State Fair will
see for the first time that "moral institu.,,
tion" known az the State dispensary. 1T
will be sometime quite new to them,5
but they cannot tel. very much about the
system of its workings by looking over
the big bottliug establishment. It VIII
be interesting to know that there are!
sixty four men and women employed in5
the bottling department. and that theyf
have their hands pretty full pplying the
liquor that is sold through thedispensary
In addition TO what this force of employ yees3
bottles great deal Of liquor Is now soids
in what is known as case goods. which IS
merely handled in the original packages
by the dispensary employees. The winter
dispensary, and Just at this time the es-;
tablishmept is being worked to its full;
capacity. The average number of barrels.
bottled per day is from IS to 45, with the
average days work put down TO 25 barr;
rels and the average contents per barrel
at 40 gallons, the days bottling amounts
to about ], 400 gallons. Ina single day
the establishment bottled $4,000 TASKS Of
liquor. The friends Of the dispensary
are, Of course, contending thst the ship
ping of40 barrels ofHquor FER day through
the dispensary is decided l,tep towards
prohibition. The Convention Of Prohi.
bitionists that will meet here next
Wednesday may have something to say
as to their view Of the matter X
On every case OF goods thai; is sent ont
by the dispensary there Is label, to the
effect that the State chemis! h,ls examined
the liquor and found it to be tschemioally
pure" This used to be regarded as very
much of farce, and those interested in
this certificate Of chemical purity will Sbel
pleased to know that now, un der the new
order of things, q sample is drawn from
every tank full Of liquor, and an analysis
Of this sample Is made. The sample on.
about $4,000 gallons of liquor, and the.
consumer can get what consolation he
wants out of this fact. The case goodH
and wines, which come already bottled,
are Lot examined, although the chemists
certificate Is slapped on every package OF
case goods just the same as on the liquorg
bottled In the dispensary.
The average man who has been tgatchss
ing the dispensary system sianu Its oes.
velopment has some suggestion to make
for its improvement and from q great
many sides come serious objections. The
General Assembly will naturally have to-
give these suggestions consida rattor, and
the high license plan, 1t may be said, is
being quietly urged by great many,
who are generally supposed to be friendly
to the dfspehsary. Among those who.
favor the high license system are many.
who inaist that the present ystem cannet;
and Will not last.
This morning asked one of the advo.
Gates of ihe high license solution ofthes
problem, what he thought was tie main;
objections to the present system, and he
said that the people of the State never
had and never would suffer misconduct
among its officers, and rather than see,
the shortages continue that they would
uproot the whole thing and do away with
the chance of its officials being led Into
shortages In their accounts.
While the clsim Is Nude that the public
is promptly advised Of shortages among.
the dispensers, it will be interesting to
know that as far as can be recalled there
has been no official announcements at this
end of the line of the shortages or the
Chester dispensary. The grand jury for
Chester has, however, just received re-
port from its expert, Mr.. McIdarnon, and
he gives some new dat, on this interest
ing shortage matter. In fact, he doubles up
the generally supposed amount OF the
Chester shortage by involving a second
dispenser. In. his report to The grand
Jury Of Chester County he says:
Isubmit the following report:
On DispeERary.-I have examined the
book of Dispenser Hooc and find that on
July /, 1896, Hood wis due the State
S636. .OS on going out Of Office; also hnd
that on August l, 1896, Dispenser Nc Daniel.
was short and due the State S74S 64,
which is unaccounted for, making, q total
deficit of 81, ,3s4.61.
There are some prominent Iseformers
who insist that the lest thing for the
party to do is to relieve itselfo the dis. /,
pensary system before it carries the whole
movement down with it.-Sp ecatrt 10 NeaoS
and Courier.