Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1904-05-11
BETTER KEEP THE ulspENsARY.
"aoralisP' Thinks II Is the Best Solution Of
the Liquor Question.


Editors Courier: If you will al
low me space in your valuable paper
l will try to comply with a request
made by gentleman at Seneca to
give my opinion as TO vote of the
people in Oconee for and against the
dispensary.
In the first place, / desire to say
the efforts of our honorable Repre-
sentatives in the Legislature to al
low the people of Oconee vote on
the matter of q dispensary or no
dispensary, is highly com mendable
on their part, as matters like the dis
pensary, affecting the interest and
morality of the entire people, should
be left to the vote of the people.
In casting our votes for or against
the dispensary in Oconee, we should
first consider, Will no dispensary
eliminate the evil of whiskey in our
county, If soN let us all vote for no
dispensary. But if it will not, l, for
one, am in favor of the dispensary,
where man who will or will not
use whiskey properly can, and knows
he can, get it and does not have to
slip about like thief to get it when
he wants some for sickness or for a
glorious drunk, or have to go to a
doctor for certificate in order that
he may get pint or quart, for
sickness, of course, when, in fact,
they often want it for a drunk. In
this case there is not only the i'm
moral offense of drunkenness COM
mitted, but that of misrepresenta-
tion.
Further, it is well known fact,
under 80 called prohibition in Oco.
nee, that to great extent, where a
man would use whiskey properly he
could not get it, while in many cases
where those that would not use it
properly could get it, by slipping
around like they were stealing some
thing, and often when they got the
stuff it was worse than anything the
dispensary ever sold.
Now, in casting our votes in the
matter of dispensary or no dispen-
sary let us consider all of the above
facts, and then if it is the blind IT,
gers or the old barroom system that
we need and want in Oconee, let us
vote for no dispensary. But if it is
something better, but not exactly
what we need and want, which is
genuine prohibition, which we never
will nor can get, let us vote for the
dispensary, where sober man can
and may get what he may actually
need any day in the year, and where
a drunkard may do likewise. And
at the same time the money spent by
the drunkard for whiskey is not alb.
solutely lost to himself and family,
like 1t was under the old barroom
system, for under the dispensary law
his children get a portion of it back
in the way of education. This is
particularly applicable to the people
who live in the country and away
from the cities and towns, for it used
to be that the barrooms were all in
the cities and towns. Hence, when
a man or drunkard went to town
from the country and spent his money
for whiskey that was the last of it
except in many cases the return of a
drunken husband, father, son or
brother.
Therefore under all of these con-
slderatlons, my opinion is, the best
solution of the whiskey question OBJ
talnable at this time is the dispensary.
Before we swap it off for something
that has been fiat failure, wherever
tried, or for the old barroom system,
with all of its gambling and immor-
ality and vice, we had better stop and
duly consider the matter, and let
alone the best thing Gall things con.
sldered) that we will ever get along
this line, and that is the dispensary,
unless it be high licensed barrooms,
controlled by the State, and the
money for licenses used for school
purposes in counties where it may
accrue, and no bar allowed out
side of an Incorporated town or CITY,
and and one half of the penalties or
fines that may be imposed or col
lected by the city or town in conse-
quence of said barroom to be retained
by the city or town that may collect
it, the other half to 60 to the county
In which city or town may be situ-
ated. But above all, let the State
continue to control the great whiskey
traffic and evil as much as possible
and it is law for her to do 80.
Moralist.