Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1905-10-18
oIspENsARY SHOULD BE KILLED.
An Illustration OF the 0esolaiing and Destroy.
lug Effects OF whiskey- Voting is Urged.
[By III. A. III. Gibson. |

EultOTS COufler: L WOulu respectfully
ask the privilege of a small space i'm your
paper. Dispepsary or no disponsary--
that is the question to be settled by the
voters of Oconee county ON the 2ith day
OF October, so far as Oconee is concerned.
Our lawmakers have made il lawful 10
sell whiskey to the people, and then if a
man gets drunk on 1t, the next thing is
to arrest, convict and punish him for get-
ting drunk. The principle is no better
Than putting pistol in a. mans hands
and then telling him to go out aud shoot
down his fellowman.
But for the use of whiskey the Joneses
would never have been tried in the Court
of Sessions last week for killing Wall.
Whiskey was at the bottom of the whole
trouble, but while the Joneses were ac-
quilted, the old man Wall lies silent in
his grave, but here let the veil fall on
that terrible transaction.
The father will lecture his son against
patroniziug the dispensary when he has
voted to have it. l am a believer in what
soever yc sow that shall ye also reap. If
you SOW whiskey you are just as certain
to reap crop of drunkards.
The dispensary is corrupting in more
ways than one. We have to contend
against two of the strongest tendencies
OF human nature righteousness and
covetousness are arrayed on tho side of
the dispensary., 1t appeals to the avarice
on the ground that the profits go to the
education of your children. That is
what it's advocates tell you. Money
wrung from the mouths of many poor
children, who must go in rags while
your children are going to school clad in
good comfortable clothing, and while
these poor children are deprived of the
benefit of the schools because they have
not decent clothing to go to school, and
w, "a
his money for whiskey which should have
been spout for food and clothing for his
wife aud children. And that is not the
worst of it. Wives are made widows
and children are made orphans. How
any Christian can make up his or her
mind to want to educate their children
on money that is making widows and
orphans, is more than can understand,
and am putting it as mild as | know
how.
think the moderate drinker is the
most dangerous factor in the liquor
question. His example to the young is
trightfully dangerous. Logic is certainly
with the total abstainer and his example
re-enforccs the argument ten fold against
the use of liquor of any kind.
We need Christ's help in this matter
against the demon ofSstrong drink that
is annually carrying men down to
immortal souls in eternity. We must be
strong, but only in the strength of God
can we prevail against this terrible evil.
1t is not the last drink that ruins a man,
it is the first drink that does the dread.
full work. A tramp walked into saloon
and called for free drink" He OBJ
tanned the drink. and as he started to go
young man present said. stop, make
us speech" He stood up before them
with grace and dignity that all his rags
and dirt could not obscure.
Gentlemen" he said, 81 look tonight
at you and myself, and it seems to me
look upon the picture of my lost man
hood. This bloated face was once as
young and handsome as yours. This
shambling figure once walked as proudly
as yours, a man in the world of men. |
too once had a home and friends and po-
sition. | had wife as beautiful as an
artists dream, and dropped the price.
less pearl of her honor and respect in the
winecup. and, Cleopatra like, saw it dis
solve and quaffed it down in the brny
draught had children as sweet and
lovely as the flowers of spring, and saw
them fade and die under the blightng
curse of drunken father. | had a home
where love lit the flame upon the altar
and ministered before it, aud | put out
the holy fire and darkness and desola-
tion reigned in it's stead. | had aspera-
tions and ambitions that scared as high
as the morning star and broke and
bruised their beautiful wings, and at last
stranglcd them that might hear their
cries no more. To-day l am a husband
without wife, a father without a child,
a tramp with no home to call his own, a
man in whom every good impulse is
dead. And all swallowed up in the
mealStrom of drink"
What picture of what was once, no
doubt, a bright and useful man, ruined
by strong drink. Can any body read it
and not want to Danish liquor from this
fair land?
We are sometimes met with the argu-
ment that if the dispensary be voted
then we will have the blind tiger in its
place, but that need not be, and will not
so be, if the local peace officers will do
their duty as the law requires them to do.
SO every voter come to the polls on the
oath with his mind made up to vote out
the great moral institution"