The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-05-17
RED NOSES WILL SPELL DEFEAT
Hunting pic" Through a Still Worm
VIII Lead to Sorrow.

To the Editor: All citizens who
| favor moral reform, are with YOU
heart, soul and purse, and will GER
tainlv hold up your hands in your
! fight against saloons. Any man who
| thinks that LIQUOR stills or saloons
will build up n town or city, or pro-
mote other business anywhere, don't
know his a. b. c.'s as business man.
They fill our guard houses, jails, peni-
| tentaries. asvlums with their custom
| ers. to saw nothing of the misery and
wretchedness among the women and
| children. The most unnatural thing
| in the world that man who neither
makes or sell ardent spirits, has
wife and sons should want one of
| those hell traps" anywhere in his vi
Cinity. If Raleigh had driven out the
saloons in 1850 or even 1865, by this
time, in my opinion, she would now
have a population at least of 10000 to
$4,000.
left Raleigh in 1S44-1S years
lold-determined never to use any
thing Intoxicating. When l COM
menced business on my own account
in 1S48 at Lockville, many of the
farmers, some of them church MEM
bers, wanted to know if | was not go
ing to have n little apple jack and
whiskey for my customers. My reply
L
store If every man in Chatham was
TO give me his trade, and on the 9TH
err hand the accused stuff should not
come into my store. If l knew /
would sell S100 worth per month.
The result was away beyond my eX-
pectationS. The large river farmers
on the Cape Fear, HaW and Deep
rivers, and their wives, gave me lib
eral patronage, and when the war
i,al tC
were larger than any merchant in the
county that had no income besides
his store In fact having the best
part of the population as my custom
ers my losses by crediting was very
small. and nearly all that | did lose
was by whiskey men. | have aided in
winding up several mercantile con-
Germs in this county, Chatham, and
your city. and in each case the prin-
cipal cause Of their failure was too
liberal in their credits-and rs to so
per cent of the book accounts and
notes that could not be collected were
against men who made too free use
of intoxicants My opinion is that
three-fourths of all failures in bust
ness can be traced to intoXicants. |
never would have any clerk or help
in my business who used intoXicants
as a beverage. Drunken clerks of
ANY Young man who will taste not and
handle not the "accursed thing" and
will use a little industry and economy,
is bound to succeed in whatever he
undertakes. otherwise he is a failure.
/ hope each county will send TO the
next General Assembly good, broad,
God-fearing men who will attend to
the public business properly and not
patronize your dispensary and
also pray that in less than two years
your good people will vote that out.
| have heard three or four men, all
good mechanics or business men, say
in the past few days. who formerly
drank to excess, and have reformed
since prohibition prevailed in our
county. that they would vote for no
man for the Legislature or Congress,
who favored saloons, dispensary or
distilleries. The fred nose" that comes
out for office and favors interfering
with the Watts or any other prohibi-
ton law will wish that he had gone
fishing instead of hunting a pie"
through a still worm. The moral por-
ton of our population are aroused and
red noses" had better keep out of
the way. The masses are with us,
thank God.
JOHN w. SCOTT.
Sanford, n. c., May IA, 1904.