The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1906-05-23
TEE GREAT DESTROYER
SOME STARTLING FACTS ABOUT
The VICE OF lNTEMPERANCE,

A Ouery: What Other Business Entails
Suffering. Sorrow and Disgrace ON Its
Patrons Like the Liquor Traftc?-
There Is But One Answer: None.
Once more the license mill has been
set in motion, and the license o
granted permission to $50 persons in
I.ycomine County to sell intoxicating
liquors as a beverage. One poor fellow
who awfully wanted to sell some, too,
was refused on the ground that anoth-
er place was not necessary at the point
he had selected as an ideal location.
Two places notorious for violations or
the regulating (D law had to make a
p~retense of rebutting evidence pro-
duced against them and they with two
other places were held under advise
ment until the court can learn how the
business is conducted"
Two questions naturally arise con-
corning these 100 liquor hells. First,
What good will result from them? Sec
ond, What harm will result from them?
AS to the good that will result, any
claim thereto must be far fetched.
There is not another business in exist
ence from which so little good arises;
it is true that $50 families, the saloon
keepers families, will be supported In
comparative luxury, but in order to
secure this support they are subjected
TO disgrace and defiling environments
which renders them actually victims of
the traffic and although they them;
selves may be total abstainers, as many
of them are, they never can shake OH,
even after retirement from the debas-
ing business, the awful and lasting dis
grace and defiling effects Of the blight
ing damning traffic. But, alas, while
these 100 families live in luxury, think
of the hundreds of families represented
by the poor fellows on the other side
Of the bar. No diamonds and rich raj
ment for them. In many Of their
homes not ven enough to satisfy the
hungry cries of the poor wife and little
ones. No shoes for the children to
wear to Sunday-school, no dress for the
oyerworked wife and mother to wear
to church. What other business entails
suffering, sorrow and disgrace on It's
patrons like the liquor traffic?
It may be claimed that further good
will result in the employment that the
business will give to brewery en-
ployes, drivers and bartenders. But
will they not, like the 100 families, be
dragged down to a lower level of re-
s%pectability, useful citizenship and true
endowment of life than would be the
case in any other employment? Cap
you conceive any other good to result
from these 100 licensed rum holes in
our county?
Now, what harm will result from
them? Alas, who al tell? what will
the harvest be-" There will be fights
and brawls, assault and battery cases
by the hundreds, suffering and sorrow
ing, broken hearts, starving children,
freezing babies and frenzied mothers,
profanity, perjury, cruel blows, 1ncen-
diaries and murders, crowded jails and
creaking gallows, crimes innumerable
and uncomfortable, funerals and perdi-
ton for many a poor soul who to-day
walks our streets all oblivious OF the
doom which awaits him. The time
worn, bare-faced fraudulency of the
claim that this accursed traffic is IL
censed, "for the good of the travelling
public" is manifestly one Of the most
misleading influences toward CONNER
cial and political dishonesty, and there
is little hope Of q permanent return TO
honest methods in business and public
affairs, while the essentially dishonest
and disloyal system Of accepting a IL
cense bride for such q business is con
tinued.-The Index, Williamsport, Pa.