The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1898-03-17

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PROHIBITION
DEPARTMENT. :
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ~~~>~~~~~~e~~~~~~~~%<~>~~ :
JOEL E. sRUNSoN, EDITOR
John Brown and Sam Jones are

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John Brown and Sam Jones are
COUSINS and both spent apart of last
Saturday in town. John is a fairly
good farmer with big feet and
brswny arms and has plenty to
live on at home. Sam has a home,
with COED little wife and six child
rem to occupy it, but very little Of
anything else to make the home
happy or comfortable. Mr.. Brown
must have spent at least twenty dol
lars last Saturday. He bought cloth
and shoes and sugar and coffee and
come play-things for the children.
Mr.. Jones showed no disposition to
trade with our merchants. He first
went. to the States barroom and
bought twenty cents worth of "chem-
lcally pure" and theu stood OIL the
street corner with the thing in his
pocket waiting to find some thirsty
soai with whom he could divide the
liQuor and dispense small chat. The
truth is, he had but two dollars in
the world and was making the most
CD oft During the afternoon be
belabored his brain to determine how
he should spend the balance of his
money. He just had to buy ten
cent?, worth of turpentine, for the
children had fearful colds and there
wss no getting ont Of twenty-five
cents Sof tobacco. He thought they
might get through the week on ten
cent? worth Of sugar and five cents
IN coffee, and then he really must
spend fifteen cents for calico to cover
the poor little baby. After these
purchases were made he found he
had one dollar and fifteen cents left.
The fifteen cents he determined to
keep, but as he had found his chief
pleasure in the chemically pure"
he concluded to spend the dollar for
some Of it to carry home.
Il il not our purpose to follow the
two men u:their homes and show the
happiness Of the one and the misery
Of the other. It will not take a
vivid Imagination to picture the
arrivals and the distribution of the
bundles. What we wish, is to show
that there is another side to the ques-
t.on. It Is easy to see that Mr..
Browns purchases were of such a
character as to benefit not only his
own family, but also the parties from
whom he bought the goods In fact,
Mr.. browns labor was turned into
the honest channels Of trade and
placed him In such condition that he
could earn twenty dollars more. Mr..
Jones spent sixty-five cents for the
necessaries Of life and exchanged one
dollar and twenty cents with the
State for nx half.pint bottles of corn
vhiskey. It is fair to say the whisk.
ey did not fit Mr.. Jones to labor for q
like amount of money. Whom, then,
did the money benefit, and where did
Il 30! A small part of it paid the
running expenses of the dispensary
while nearly all of it went out of the
Blste to buy like amount of Ii
quor.
How the merchants of town can
cay the liquor business brings trade
snd prosperity to the place is beyond
our ken. We can see how it gobbles
up the trade and brings poverty.
Every dollar taken in by the dispen-
sary means just that much taken
from the legitimate channels of trade
and sent beyond the borders of our
State for the benefit Of liquor-sellers
elsewhere.
Think of it, one million five hun
dred thousand dollars taken annual
-lJA4 the State Of South Carolina
from her poor people in exchange
for wounds and bruises and most of
it sent of to liquor-sellers else
where.