The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1907-02-28
POSITNEl No Dsp1ay Advertisement Changed Unless Copy
HISTORY Of THE
State DISPENSARY.
SOME OF The EVENTS LEADING TO ITS
BOEN.FALl.-.BRICE LAW TIE
ENTERING WEDGE.

COLUMBIA, February "a: South
Carolina has had one week Of
absolute prohibition. During that
week there may have sprung up two
blind tigers where one blind tiger
grew before, and during that week
the jug trade may hav, increased by
II jugful, but at any rate there has
been less for the police to do, and
the Recorders court in Columbia
has been very tame. There have
been no complaints of wholesale
violations of the law anywhere.
On Saturday eveningin Columbia
1t is a sight to watch tle dispen.
saries-or it used to be u sight.
Negroes, most of them laborers who
have knocked off work, 60 in and
out by the dozen and there is a
crowd standing before the doors.
This sight was lacking yesterday
evening. and it may be that some o.
these negroes took home more money
and more groceries than they have
been doing, whether or not there
were blind tigers to be patronized.
The shutting down Of the dispensary
g, stem was so much OF surprise to
most persons that many were
caught without the little dram
which they take for their stonach's
sake, and in scme cases it was really
hardship. One old woman came
into the Governors office pleading
for some Shiskey for sick child,
and nearly all the dispensalies had
similar requests. More than one
Instance Of this sort was personally
observed.
But IN seventeen counties of Sos.th h
Carolina the closing down of the
dispensary system gave no such sur
prise. In seventeen OF the most
populous and prosperous counties
the dispensary Was already a thing
Of the past. Marlboro and Green,
wood have always been without dis,
pensaries, and gradually under the
Bricc law fifteen Others ridded
themselves of the institution. The
Brice law was the beginning of the
! Carry-Cothran law. That is to
SAY, it was The frs: local option law
permitted to be enacted under the
dispensary regime. Senator Brice,
whose fight against the State dis
pensary deserves ever1as Ing re-
membrance. was not the first to try
to get local option law passed.
Mr. John R Harrison, who sat IN
the honse and voted quietly for the
Carey -Cothran law. advocated some
thing of the kind wher he was a
candidate for governor in 1898
Senator Appelt introduced Il bill of
this kini to 1899 or 1900, and
Senator Archer, of Spartanburg
did the same, if the writer's memory
| is not at fault. If one of these bills
had passed the State dispensary
system might have been preserved,
probably it would have been pre-
served and perfected. The most
bitter enemies of the dispensary
were willing to accept the Appel
bill and cease the fight on the dis
pensary system if 1t were enacted
But The dispensary regime was
obdurate. 1t would not yield an
inch. There was no concession
"After us the deluge," they SAID,
and the deluge has come.
The opposition to the dispensary
at first came principally from the
towns, where the barrooms had
been closed and the municipal
whiskey interests were put out OF
power. The prohibitionists, with
some exceptions, never liked the
dispensary law, and in 1899 or
thereabouts, when the local option
lists, under Col George Tillman and
the prohibitionists, pnder Mr.