The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-07-05
Sam Jones on Dispensary.
Uorkville Inquirer.)


Sam Jones writes to the Atlanta Jour-
nal from Gainesville, as follows: 7
have spent three days Of this week in
South Carolina, and I have been think
ing considerably owe what I saw and
heard on this trip as well as on other
tours through South Carolina. I spent
last Monday night in Charleston. Our
train on the Coast Line was late. We
got to Charleston about 8 o'clock. 1
inquired at the hotel for a decent res
taurant. I was referred to one in a
block Of the hotel. I went in, ordered
my p p AT the table next to me
were young men, not eating, but drink
ing. They were full when I got in;
they were fuller when 1 got out. When
I got back to the hotel I remarked that
there seemed more to drink han to
| eat at the restaurant they referred me
to. That brought on more talk. and
the ~dispensary, with all it's character
istics was discussed.
A gentleman standing high in the
financial and political life of South
| Carolina proposed to me that he would
| show me something If I would go with
him, and I accepted his invitation, and
within two blocks he carried me into
six full-fiedged Charleston blind tigers.
He said there were three hundred of
them there. Some of them were raided
by the state and city c~onstabulary.
Others were immune; they never had
been raided.
There are fourteen state dis~pensaries
in Charleston. 1 suppose they only do
a small percent of the business in
liquor. The dispensaries must close
at 6 o'clock in the evening and open at
6 o'clock in the morning, but the blind
tigers do business after the hours OF
the dispensary, they do business
until the wee small hours of the morn
ing. The names and places Of these
blind tigers are as we'll konwn in
Charleston as the clothing stores of
| George Muse and Elsman, or the dry
goods stores of Chamberlin, Johnston
and Keely in Atlanta. The dispensaries
in the smaller towns do a large bust
ness, and perhaps the only liquor bust
ness of any of them worth speaking of;
| but they do business selling bust-heafs
from sixteen cents a half pint bottle to
81 a quart. The state is the wholesale
dealer and it furnishes all the dispen-
saries, and the states profit is made
in their profits as they sell to the coun
ty and town dispensaries. For instance
each dispensary pays the state dispen-
sary II cents a bottle for that pop
skull. which the town dispensary sells
for fifteen cents, and 1t has the stamp
Of the state chemist on it, reading
nothing chemically impure in this
liquor" 1 do not now why they do
not stamp on the bottle Nothing NOR.
ally impure either" The one would
go as far as the other with me.
/ once favored the diSpenSary as {:
choice between the saloon and the dis
| pensary for the following reasons:
First, I thought the d~ispensary would
put the barroom crowd and the liquor
interests out of politics. and we all
know what a potent factor they make.
Secondly. that the license feature by
which the Golfers of the town and state
are enriched would be done away with;
and thirdly, because I believed less
liquor would be drunk. But the South
Carolina ~dispensaries demonstrate that
liquor is in politics worse in South Car
DINA than any state in the Union. And
that there is more liquor drunk out OF
the dispensaries of South Carolina per
capito in my candid judgment, than
out of the f~ull-fiedged barrooms In 9TH
er states. 1t will take South Carolina
a hundre years to recover from the
effects of the ~dispensary, for dispensary ,
liquor not only d~ebauches the poor
lewis that drink it, but the ~dispensary
will debauch the whole state in its
Politics and morals. / am as much
against the pen saloon as I ever was.
l am as much against the d~ispensary as
T am against the saloon. and for the
same reasons.
s. c., has never had 4
d~ispenSary. For first class citizenship, |
intelligence. morality and decency she
stands without a peer in the state. Gin
ton, S. c., l believe is another of the
same stripe. But you find
a dispensary you will find a debauched
sentiment, and a growing greed on the
payers to push it's business and to In
crease it's profits.
The best elements of South Carolina
are against the ~dispensary, the worst
elements of South Carolina are against
the dispensary, and these two classes
together do make a majority in n
state. 1t is an anomalous state OF.
things If the best and worst elements
Of society be together against anything.
I do<not remember that l have met
A single minister in South Carolina, or
| devout Christian man who wasn't
! against the dispensary and the worst
| feature of the ~dispensary system Is,
| il has fastened itself like a leach and
! has come to stay. 1 had rather under
| take to vote the saloons out of Macon,
| Atlanta or Savannah than to undertake
to vote the dispensary out of Athens
or Rome.
If any town in Georgia or other state
contemplates inaugurating a ~dispensary
! LET them send a committee of three hon
| est men to Charleston or
| and take in also some of the smaller
towns, and the thing as it is. That
| committee will come back, report un
fayorably. Keep your saloons until
You car vote them out, but don't ever
| compromise by swapping your saloons