The weekly true Democrat. (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1905-1912, 1906-08-10

Brooksville Argus: One of the asser-
tiOns used by whiskey men in favor Of
the open saloon is that IL would destroy
the Blind Tigers" We never knew a
Temperance man to use 1t.
The statement that the open saloon
eliminates the blind tiger is only approx
mately true in theory; Il is untrue in
fact. Our observation has been. that
more blind tigers exist under the wet
than under the dry. Under the dry the
saloon keeper runs the blind tiger in per-
son, and Is always under q strain of APP
prehension Of Temperance men getting
witnesses against him ard having him
arrested and tried. Under the wet he
simply runs an open saloon himself and
furnishes others with liquors with which
to run blind tigers around the outskirts
of town, phosphate and turpentine
camps. The Temperance men cease their
vigilance, because they believe it to be
to the interest of the open saloons to
suppress blind tigers. So the blind t.
gers have q free hand under the wet.
Proof that blind tigers are run in wet
counties as we'll as in dry, was proven
a few weeks ago, when q number
were arrested for selling liquor unlaw-
fully in and around Jacksonville where
thirty-two saloons are in full blast.
Blind tigers are run in every wet county
in the State, and unless rome blind IL
ger man undertakes to run independ-
emily Of saloon keeper, no one is likely
to be disturbed.
Brooksville under the wet had more
blind tigers than it has ever had under
the dry. And they were both of the
ordinary kind and the worst character
of blind tigers possible, being nothing
less than disorderly houses, where Ii
quors, obtained from the open saloons
Of the town, were sold to their custom
ers. These female blind tigers were
furnished with intoxicants and were
therefore supported by the open saloons.
Each saloon had its own patrOnizing and
patrOnized brOthel One of these female
tiger brothels is said to have been fitted
uD sumptously--p piano, carpets and the
furnishings of luxurious home. 1t was
burned down, whether set on fire by ac-
cident, indignant parents, or a rival fe-
male tiger, we do not know.
Under the wet, in these purlieus OF
uncomfortable vice the female blind IT,
gers held high carnival. Our young
men were enticed into them, and their
souls, minds and bodies ruined in most
loathsome and disreputable ways When
the open saloons were closed by law,
these cess pools of vice and infamy were
dried up also, because their supporters,
the saloons, were gone. We here refer
to the white female tigers that infested
Brooksville under the wet. That there |
were more negro male and female tigers |
than white our people have no reason to
doubt.
In Brooksville under the wet the hill
tops were sprjnkled with blood, and the
valleys reeked with uncomfortable vice. |
AS to female blind tigers, that con-
dition exists in every wet town and
city. The brothels sell liquors, furnish |
ed by the local open saloons, without
license. Brothels exist wherever open
saloons do.
The honest men, and there were hon
est men, who signed the whiskey petit
ton for an election, because they were
opposed to blind tigers, will have to
erase their names to be consistent, on
account of these facts.
Many of our older citizens can vouch |
for the correctness Of our statements in
this article in regard to the conditions
that existed here under the wet.
Is there a man on that petition who