El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-12-11
CIGARETTE DEALERS
Have Gone Out Of Bu-iness In Ten
nessee.-Tbey Fear the Crimi-
nal Court" Coffin Nails" Seem
inqlV Done For.

From the Memphis. Oomme-ctslAo zeal.
The cigarettes must go.
| And the leading tobacco dealers o.
the city have decided that they viii
make no further attempt to sell them
or combat the state law prohibiting
their sale in Tennessee.
| This deciSionw as not reached until
yesterday, and it was inspired by the
announcement in The Commercial Ap-
peal that Judge Cooper. of the Grim
inal court. was determined to have the
statute enforced and that the grand
| jury would take the question up to-
day.
a reporter for The Commercial APP
peal called on several of the leading
cigar. cigarette and tobacco wholesale
men yesterday, and all of them said
| they would no longer be in the bus
| mess.
1t was rumored that an agent of the
American Tobacco company had Wis
tied Memphis during the past few days
for the purpose of giving their local
agents instructions as to what they
should do in the case of cigarettes. but
this was not well founded. The action
taken in the matter was entirely vol
unfairly on the part of the Memphians
and there is no sort of understanding
with the big trust regarding indem-
nifty. from fine or an arrangement by
which they could proceed with the SELL
ing of cigarettes without the fear of
fines.
The dealers took action in hurry.
and by noon yesterday there was not
a single uptown cigar stand at which
the cigarette could be procured-a sit
uation which has hardly existed an
hour since the law originally went in
to effect. For a time when the legisla-
ture first passed the prohibitory stat
ute there was some difficulty for the
''fiend" when looking for his favorite
smoking material, but it was not long
until little or no attention was paid to
the law and it was an easy matter to
get cigarettes at almost any stand.
The Dealers View.
You can't get them today" said a
well-known wholesale as well as re-
tail dealer yesterday, for either love
or money-that is at none of our
stands. We have positively come to
the conclusion that it is best to go out
of the handling business than accom-
modate our friends whit the possibil-
ity of being jerked up to the criminal
court and fined for a pretty stiff
amount. The profit does not justify
it to begin with, and, in the second
place we don't care to be in the atti-
tuCe or vlOlatorS OF the law anyway.
In my opinion it will not be a week
until it will be almost impossible to
find even one of the small dealers who
will sell you cigarettes.
If this plan is as rigidly. carried out
as every indication suggests. there
will be only one chance for the Gig
arctic smokers to get what they de-
sire. This will be on the steamboats,.
and then it will be necessary for them
to take ride into the middle of the
stream, beyond the line that bounds
the jurisdiction of Tennessee. Here
tofore the state authorities have paid
little attention to the traffic. but it is
the understanding thtat the grand jury
from now on will go right after the
violators. Judge Cooper's tone is more
ominous, and it is believed that he is
quite in earnest in his statement that
the law must be enforced.