The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1906-11-02
KENTUCKY GOING DRY.
TEMPERANCE is THE GREAT 20.
LlTICAL ISSUE THERE.
STATE LARGELY PRoHles NOW

| LOST on temperance issue - EdCn
Candidate Claims Credit,
Louisville. Ky, oct 31,-Thc An.
ciont Mariner walled in mctrcal mca
sure:
water water everywhere, nor ans
drop 10 drink"
Tho Ancient Kcntucldans may truth.
fully set up his lamont
"Whisl>y. whisky everywhere, but the
hull states going dry"
There are 253 distillores in the 1l0
counties Of Kentucky, something over
two distillerics for each county At
the same time 81 of these 1l9 coun-
ties are as dry as the desert of Sa-
hara. The sale of liquor in them has
been voted down. or the remaining
3S, there are 20 that have solitary
saloon to furnish an oasis to- the thir-
sty Kentuckians within their borders.
And there Is no county in Kentucky,
not Jefferson, the home of Louisville,
nor Fayette, the home of Lexington,
nor Franklin, the home of Frankfort,
that is altogether wet Each county
has its dry precincts where the hosts
of temperance have gained a foothold
Even Bourbon county has only two
damp precincts to keep 1t from alto
gether belying It's name.
To add to this paradoxal state of
affairs, the race for United States SEN
ator is being conducted with temper
ance as the issue. Gov. Beckham and
Senator McCreary are not knocking
the top out of the barrel and hanging
up tin dippers for the thirsty, as was
the custom in Kentucky politics of a
, bygone and damper day. Instead they
are fairly deluging one another with
cold water. Each is claiming to be
the original blue ribbon candidate.
McCreary has gone back to the time
when he was governor to show that he
was the first to start temperance leg
islation in Kentucky Beckham points
to the fact that he first landed square
on a temperance platform, and points
also to the county unit bill and other
temperance measures he put through
the last legislature, with the fact that
he slapped the Sunday lid on Louis
vile and Lexington.
All this goes to demonstrate what
Kentuckians have long realized that
there is remarkable spread of tenn
perance in Kentucky and it is not at
all improbable, but highly probable,
that before many years Kentucky will
become absolutely dry.
Meanwhile the 253 distlleries con
tinue to turn out the simon pure ar
ticle for consumption at home and
, abroad. And it must not be imagined
the Kentuckian has ceased consuming
it. The od-fashioned Kentuckian
sticks to his toddy, mint julep, or
straight Ticker" while the rising gen
J GRAFTON shows an inclination toward
the highball and the mixed drinks of
, civilization. There is no law to pre-.
: vent a man keeping a supply of liquor
in dry country, and there's many a
} moist sideboard in them.
| But imagine a man from the east,
north, south or west, striking a Ken
lucky town and, after registering at
the Commercial hotel, asking the clerk
where he could get a drink of real
Kentucky whisky, and having the clerk
answer, Cant get drop to drink in
this town; it's dry"
The chances are the stranger would
go to the depot and ask what time
the next train left for Kentucky
The democratic nomination for
United States senator is to be made
November G, in a democratic primary
held on the day of the general cleo
ton. McCreary and Beckham, the
candidates, are making their final eff
forts towards catching the temperance
vote. The McCreary managers have
attempted to split Beckham's temper
ance forces by springng letter, sup
posed to have been written by an Off
cial high in Beckham's favor, in which
he makes the statement that the Beck
hamites had worked both the temper
ance and liquor people on the recent
Legislation. The Beckham people in
dignantly repudiate the letter as a
forgery.
Thus 1t happens that Kentucky is
at one and the same time one of the
wettest and one of the driest spots on
earth, that she seems to be trying to
Danish one of her time-honored insti-
buttons and that she is knocking out
the country's cherished illusion that
Kentucky is one region that is always
soaked.
The Kentucky grand lodge of Ma
sons, at their meeting last week, adopt
ed a resolution, barring from admit
lance into any lodge any one engaged
in the manufacture or sale of spurious,
vinous or malt liquors.