The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1898-09-07

n the Editor of tie Dispatch:

10 the Editor OF tEe DlspalSE.
In your issue of August 3lst, you
say, 1T now seems beyond a question
that Governor Ellerbe, standing for
the Dispensary, and Featherstone,
standing for drug store bar rooms at
every cross road and plenty Of blind
tigers in the country, will have to
,un the race over"
Now, Mr. Editor, the above state
nent, in so far as it relates 10 Mr.
Featherstone and his supporters. is
go obviously mendacious. that L
cannot withhold protest. Ii truth
and fairness will not serve your pur-
pose please do not put false lights on
others. Joab Edwards.
Leesville, S. c., September 3, 1893.
We do not wish TO deal harshly
with the Rev. Joab Edwards. II he
has so far forgotten the sanctity OF
the priestly robes which clothes bis
body to use such unchristian Ian
guage we will not forget our love and
reverence for the sacred cloth to re-
ply in kind. It is obvious that the
writer is so prejudiced on the sub
iect of prohibition that he has allowed
prejudice to get the upper hand OF
his judgment.
Under no circumstance has the
Dispatch been inconsistent in its
editorial utterances upon any politi-
cal issue with which our people have
to deal. It is remarkable fact,
and we have documentary evidence
to substantiate our claim, that the
very men whom the Dispatch has
antagonized most have been the
very ones whose convictions have
impelled them to admit the fairness
OF this paper, with perhaps the ex
ception of Rsv. Joab Edwards.
We have time and again declared
that we favored prohibition if ii was
practicable and would have gladly
and even ioyfully enlisted 10 any
respectable movement whose founda-
t;o1 stones were total and absolute
prohibition; but when We asked for
bread they gave US stone, and
cried for meat they tempted US with
a serpent. The great Prohibition
leader in this State, Hon. L. D.
Childs, and if there ever was an
honest man, God knows he is one,
positively rejected the proposition
for the passage of an absolute prohi
bition measure through the Gene.
raj Assembly, because be recognized
that such measure was absolutely
impracticable, and substituted for the
proposition a bill restricting the sale
of intoxicating liquors to medicinal,
scientific and mechanical purposes
and making drug stores the medium
of their sale. This bill was made, and
is now, the key stone of the present
prohibition movement. This is a
fair statement of the situation.
Upon this platform Mr.. Joel I.
Brunson, pure and patriotic man,
was nominated for Governor by the
so called Prohibitionists. At the last
moment, be was forsakeD, for the ap
parent reason that he could not
&c before the honest and intelligent
voters of this State, with hypocrisy
in his heart and promise something
which he was fully aware he
could not redeem, if elected, and Mr..
Featherstone, who short while pre-
vious had been substituted for Mr..
Childs, candidate for Lieutenant Gov
ernor, who was compelled to decline
on account of i'll health, pushed Mr..
Brunson clear off the prohibition
platform and of his own motion made
the race for Governor on the drug
store e-bar-room platform and he is no
more the candidate of the honest
prohibition element than is Governor
Ellerbe.
We have put the prohibitionists in
no false light. We simply didn't
have to. In the their over jealous.
ness they have blindly followed the
leadership OF this latter day saint for
no other reason than he advocates
that whisky should be sold by drug
gists and not through the dispensa-
ries, which, as every intelligent per-
son knows, means simply that drug
store can be established at every
cross road, and with no one to look
after the enforcement Of the law,
blind tigers will prosper and their
presence desecrate the temples Of
God and pollute the school rooms
to debauch our innocent little ones
and plunge them into a drunkard's
hell.
We have placed the SO called pro-
hibitionists in no false light; we have
told nothing but the naked truth and
faithfully warned our people of the