The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1904-03-18
SAN JONES ON DIsPENsARY
The Georgia EVANGELIST Sizes up
Our "Greaf Moral Institution"

have spent three days of this
week in South Carolina, and l have
been thinking considerably over what
L saw and heard on this trip as well
as on other tours through South Car
olina. spent last Monday night in
Charleston. Our train on the Coast
Line was late. We got to Charleston
about nine o'clock. 1 inquired at
the hotel for decent restaurant. 1
was refOrred to one in the block Of
the hotel. l went in, ordered my
supper. At the table next to me
were four young men, not eating, but
drinking. They were full when 1 got
in; they were fuller when ! got out.
When l got back to the hotel re-
marked that there seemed to be more
to drink than to eat at the restaurant
they referred me to. That brought
on more talk, and the dispensary,
with all it's characteristics, was dis
| cussed.
VISITED SIX BLIND TIGERS.
A gentleman standing high in the
financial and political life in South
Carolina proposed to me that he
would show me something il i would
go with him, and l accepted his invi-
tation, and within two blocks he car
ried me into six full-fedged Charles
ton blind tigers. He said there were
300 Of them were raided by the state
and city constabulary frequently.
Others were immune; they never had
been raided.
There are IA State dispensaries in
Charleston. l suppose they only do
small per cent. of the business in
liquor. The dispensaries must close
at O'Clock in the evening and open
at six in the morning, the names and
places of these blind tigers are as
well-known in Charleston a the cloth
ing stores of George Muse and Else
man, or the dry goods stores of Cham
berlin-Johnson and Keely in Atlanta.
The dispensaries in smaller towns do
large business, and perhaps the
only business Of any of them worth
speaking of; but they do business.
selling bust-head from l6 cents
half pint to 80 quart. The State
is the wholesale dealer and furnishes
all the dispensaries, and the States
profit is made in their profits as they
sell to the county and town dispen-
saries. For instance each dispensary
pays the State IL cents a bottle for
that popskull which the town dispen.
sary sells for Is cents, and has the
State chemist on it, reading: "Noth-
ing chemically impure in this liuuor."
L do not know why they do not stamp
on the bottle, Nothing morally i'm
pure either" The one would 90 "a
far with me as the other.
TENDENCY OF DIsPENsARY.
L once favored the dispensary as a
choice between the saloon and the dis.
pensaly, for the following reasons:
First, l thought the dispensary would
put the bar room crowd and the ,ionor
interests out of politics, and we all kno ~
what potent factor they make: second.
Iy. that the license feature by which the
| Golfers of the town and state are enrich
cd, would be done away with; and third
ly. because less liquor would be drank.
But the South Carolina dispensaries
demonstrate that liquor is in politics
worse in South Carolioa than any state
in the union. And, secondly, that the
taxpayers are getting more money out OF
it. And thirdly, that there is more
| liquor drunk out of the dispensaries Of
South Carolina, in nv candid Judgment.
than out of the full fiedged bar rooms in
| other states.
1t will take South Carolina a hundred
| years to recover from the effects of the
dispensary; for dispensary liquor not
only debauches the poor devils that
| drink it, bnt the dispensary will debauch
| the whole state in its politics and morals
| | am as much against the open saloon as
| loon as l ever was. / am as much
against the dispensary as / am against
the saloon, and for he same reasons.
Greenwood, s. G has never had dis
pensary. For first class citizenship. intel.
l'gence, morality and decency she stands
without peer in that state. Clinton, :.
G., believe, Is another of the same
stripe. But wherever you find dispen-
sary you find debauched sentiment; and
| growing greed on the part of, the taxpay-
ers to push its busines. and increase its
| profits
VIEWS OF MINISTER'S.
The best elements of South Carolina
are against the dispensary; the worst ele-
| ments OF South Carolina are against the
| alspensary; and these two classes toge,h-
er DO not make majority In that state.
| II is an anomalous state Of things if The
best and worst elements of society be to-
| gether against any thing,
do not remember that have met a
single minister in Soul Carolina, or de-
vout Christian man. who wasn't agains,
the dispensary; and the worst feature of
the dispensary system is, it has fastened
itself like leech, and has come to stay.
would rather undertake to vote the
saloons out cf Macon, Atlanta or Savan-
nah than to y 'i1rtaka to vote the disp2n-
saty out oi Athens or Rome have not
only got to fight the liquor, but / have
got to fight the profits of liquor that
come to each taxpayer of the county,
and when YOn tOnch the axeraoe fellom,a