The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1901-05-15
! PROTEST AGAINST UNHOLY WINE.
Should the Site Rest3re Vine
yards to Honcred Place Among
Profitable Professions?

curing the campaign meetings through
cut the State during last summer, and
at times since then, but its merits
and demerits, especially the latter,
lave merely been skinned over,
while the inward, diabolical depths Of
its craftiness, and the evil influences
it has secretly exercising have remain
ed untouched and as yet concealed. In
what respects has the dispensary ben
Gifted the people of the State and
proved successful as to the purpose for
which it was ostensibly established?
Financially it certainly has not
proved a success, unless it has very re-
Gently begun new and more prosper
Gus course, for it profits must have been
largely expended in carrying on vari-
Gus lawsuits in which the State became
Involved in conducting the business Of
the concern, besides losses of greater
or less amounts, continually met with
from stealage AS political machine
and ring establishment it undoubtedly
has been successful in securing to its
leading projectors and supporters a
long run of political power and lucra-
tive positions where cunningly hidden
from public view in the performance
of their official duties, they have
been enabled to appropriate to their
private use as much of the dispensary
stuff as they pleased, without let or
hinderance or fear of detection. But
as an instrument of moral reform and
of progressive advance in righteous
ness, it has been an utter failure:
ave. even worse than a failure, for it
has held up to men temptation to
drink, in this, that the more people
bought and consumed, the greater
would be the profits to the State, and
to the people corresponding reduc-
ton of taxes.
1t has tempted to lie, steal and to
commit murder or manslaugter, not
few cases of which latter crimes have
been committed by the villainous
class, who were appointed to act as de-
tectives in ferreting out trangressors
O: the law, and who were assured of
the governors protection in case in
temperate zeal in the performance Of
their dirty, tyrannical duties should,
a. any time, provoke resistance, lead
inc on to acts of violence, which
would render them liable to Indictment
and trial as Violations of the crlml-
nal laws of the State. A good and
beneficial law would never have called
for the employment of such vicious
let of men as composed the dispensary
constabulary force, whose deeds of
violence have brought disgrace upon
the State, and instead of promoting
harmony and good will among the
people, have tended greatly to in
crease strife and discord and lawless-
ness. If it is not wrong for the
State to sell spirituous liquors for
profit, it cannot be wrong for citizens
to do so, under such restrictions and
exactions as the legislature might see
fiji to impose upon those who should
be authorized to carry on the traffic, and
in denying to citizens this right of
competition in the business, and in
assuming the sole power to do so, the
State has established huge, tyranni-
cal monopoly and trust, in contrayen
ton of the rights of the people. But
if it is wrong for citizens to sell
liduor, under the restraints and
authority of law, then is it ten times,
ave a hundred times worse for the
State to monopolize the traffic and for
the sake of an increase of gain, so to
conduct it as to cause even more wide
spread, demoralizing and insidious
evils than existed before.
There may be less open drunkenness
apparent on the streets of cities and
towns since the suppression of bar
rooms and saloons, but is there IN fact
any decrease in the consumption of
liquor, especially outside the limits of
incorporated communities, throughout
the country districts Apparently this
is not the case.
It has become the fashion of the day
to hoist up intemperance in drink to
the public gaze as though 1T were the
chief of vices and sins and the cause
of more crimes than any other evil
habit that man can be addicted to
or afflicted with, whereas is 1t not
like other criminal vices and sins,
many of them more deadly and damna-
BILE than it, simply symptom of spir-
itl1al disease, the evidence of dlstem-
pered heart? "an evSl heart of unbe-
lief, in departing from the living
God and hardened by the deceitful-
ness of SIM Drunkenness is not only
a criminal act in the sight of men
but It is also sin against God: for
no drunkard can be an fnherltor of
the kingdom of God
Our Savior on one occasion said to
his disciples, Mark VII, Is to 20,
"There is nothing from without
man that entering INTO him can defle
him, but the things that come out of
him, these are they that defile the man.
Fer from within, out of the heart of
men proceed, evil thoughts, aduiteries,
foEnication, murders, thefts, covet-
to,1sness, wickedness, an evil eye, bias
phenyy, pride, foohshness. All these
evil things come from within and dehle
the man" The heart of the drunkard
then, is diste1npered heart, harden
ed by unbelief, and the deceitfulness
of sin, possessed of devil that drives
him to drink aswell as to the commits
sion of other criminal and sinful acts.
Can the dispensary law, or any other
lazy, prohibitory or not, cast devil
out of mans heart? It may bring
the culpit to trial and punishment for
hrs transgression bat it never can heal
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