The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1902-02-12
BILL ARP AND THE ARDENT,
1t is Difficult to Keep People
From Drinking He Quotes
Scripture

From Drinking He Quotes
Scripture.
Atlanta Constitution.
was Illuminating about this little
unpleasantness that is going on
amongst our neighbors at Rome. My
comfort Is that it is not as big a thing
as they think it is and will soon pass
away. After the election is over the
leaders will apologize all round and
make friends and the dear people have
time to reflect and wonder what fools
the leaders made of them. A friend
writes me that there is nothing in it
but ring politics-who shall run the
Whisky Is the background, but the
main thing is Office. AS Leonard Nor
row once sald at II public speaking,
| " Boys, don't let 'em fool you. They
are just side wipin' round hun,in' the
orthography of a little office" Carlisle
said, England has a population of
10000, ,000- 1ostly fools," and Just SO
there are enough fools IN every county
or community t. elect man ii he can
get them all. He is pretty safe if he
can get majority of them.
" Dispensary or no dispensary,"
that is the question that is now stirring
Rome and Floyd County. Well, we
Know all about it here in Gainesville,
for We tried saloons for years and they
did so much harm we abolished them
and they will never come back here
agaln-never. Now we are trying the
dispensary; In fact, we h 20 two of
them, tne in Rome and tie other i'm
Atlanta. We wouldn't have one in our
town or county for anything. The
farther off the better. The easier
whisky is to get tue more will he drank.
Dawson, in Terrell County, has had a
dispeusary for nearly four years. The
sales for the first year were S26 900.
The second year were $39 900, the
third year $56, 900 and the present year
viii probably run to $75 900 You see,
II takes the boys some time to find out
how easy it Is to get it, but the con-
sumption goes on and on, increasing
and the people take comfort in that the
profits increase their school fund and
lessen their taxes. No matter if il inn
proverlshcs the poor and makes drunk
ards of their young men. That is of
no consequence.
Now, our dispensaries are most too
near. L wish that the consumers had
to get their supplies from Cinc:n.
natl or Baltimore. That would cut the
jug business down one-half at least.
The common people couldn't wait 80
long and so nobody but uncommon
people W. uld get any hardly. 1t would
be long time between drinks, as the
Governor of North Carolina said to the
Governor of South Carolina. There is
bound TO be some drinking going on if
they knew that the world was going to
be burned up tomorrow. "All we can
do" said good man to me Yesterday,
"is to make 1T hard to get and regulate
its gale and consumption" This man
had had experience with young men
who drank on the SLY. He used to
drink habitually himself, but found the
habit was growing on him. lie wanted
1T oftencr and more of it and 50 he quit
short off two years ago. He said otbat
there was but little difference between
open bar rooms ard tho dispcnsary,
so far as the better class of young men
were concerned. A dollar bottle in a
room with three or four friends was
about as bad as the dollar spent for
drinks in bar ROOM"
But the bar rooms are nuisance in
any town and a disgrace to its refine
inent. LII they are allowed at all they
should he on some side street where
ladies do not frequent or nave to pass.
Keep them out of sight and out of
smell. Of course, the drinking habit
cannot be stopped by law, nor can the
sale of whisky be stopped as long as
the government allows its manufacture.
Our people can drive over to Cherokee
and buy what they want from the gov.
ernment dlstillery. There is no such
thing as prohibition and never will be
until the dawn of the millennium.
This thing began with old Noah and
had its ups and downs all through the
Bible history. 1t never was sanction
ed. 1t never was prohibited except to
the priests in the tabernacle. "Drink
not in the tabernacle lest ye die,n saith
Moses. All of those old time peonle
kept some on the sideboard. joseph
and his brethren drank together and
were merry. David speaks of wine
that maketh glad the heart of man.
Solomon says, Give strong drink to
him that is ready to perish and wine TO
those that be heavy of heart" But
when he was SOLDERING up from spree
he said, I" Wine is mocker, strong
drink is raging, for at the last it biteth
like serpent and stingeth like an adj
der" 1 heard a judge of our circuit
say that the wind up of spree was
the mos wretched and forlorn mental
condition that could befall a man. Said
he, "Away in the dead of night have
gotten up and gone TO the well in nv
night shirt and drank and drank OF the
cooling water until / could hold no
more. 1 wanted 10 bite branch i'm
two and swallow the upper end"
Nabal got drunk and became as a
stone, and Benhadad and thrty-two
kings oil got drunk together after a
battle. jeremiah, the prophet, tried
| to make the Rechabites drink wine with
him, but they would not, for so their
father had enjoined them, and Jere.
miah blessed them for obeyine their
father, and said, "Thus saith the Lord
| the house of Jopadab. tbe son nj