Evening journal., 1907-10-09
GEORGIA AND Her HYPOCRISY.

Undoubtedly one Of the most miser-
able shams in the history Of ssate
legislation has recently been accom-
plished by Georgia.
Great stress has been laid upon the
fact and it is clothed with importance,
since It tends TO show the emotional
signs OF the times, that Georgia has
jumped from local option to Prohibit
tion. Now by law liquor cannot be
made, or sold, or given away, and even
the drug stores are prohibited from
supplying to the sick or the dying any
stimulant with the exception of pure
alcohol. If a physician finds that
champagne, now so frequently used in
the sick room and in hospitals or bran
dy is necessary, the law demands that
the patient shall die rather than the
liquor prescription shall be filled at the
drug store.
The crafty politicians who are riding
into power and graft on the top wave
Of this prohibition sentiment in the
South in their zeal even struck at the
religion of our Lord and Saviour, since
the law forbids the administration of
wine in the churches in connection with
the holy sacrament
But how came Georgia to enact such
a sweeping interdict? There is always
one side TO a story and this one has
two. To pass prohibition il had TO be
based upon race prejudice. Liquor was
too good for the "nigger" and his fos-
ter brother, the poor white trash"
Stop it. and "nigger" crime against
womanhood will cease was the argu-
ment. and it caught the minds of emo
tional and thoughtless men and women.
But Prohibition could not be passed
in Georgia either on moral or temper
ance grounds which has been claimed.
It was only passed upon the promise to
rob the Niger of his right to vote.
It passed one day by a vote of ten to
one, and mark you the very next day
the legislature passed an act disfran-
chising the negro. Here was a ques-
tionable political deal and a bargain
that was manipulated and accomplish
ed by the politicians both within and
without the church.
3 Now mark again the subsequent ac-
tion of this same Georgia legislature.
Within a week following its hysterical
adoption of prohibition by a vote en-
tirely unanimous it passed a club act
taxing every social club which dis
penses liquors u its members three
hundred dollars.
the deceived clergyman and his church
members who were used in the drama
to rob the negro of his vote are meas
uring the breadth and the depth of
their bunco. But the hotels do not
smile. nor does the farmer who all his
life has been making his own peach
brandy which he drinks with the addi-
tion Of a drop of honey.
Upon the first of January, 1908, the
bar Of every hotel must be closed-even
the rooms as to liquors, the drug stores
save as to alcohol.
But around the corner, or at the next
cross-road will be the club. Home life
next year will not be known to Georgia.
in so far as the men are concerned, and
it will soon reach the club life Of the
women.
How easy to form a club. Rent a
room. charge each member fifty cents
for his key. He takes in his friends
pays for the drinks, and afterwards di-
vides the expense. This is not gentle
manly, but it is the pace set by hypo-
crisy.
Every wet member of the Legisla-
ture voted for the $4,000 club tax bill;
every dry" member did likewise. Why,
Because they thought the negroes could
not form clubs and pay tax of $500 .OC
But we shall seel
In Georgia since 1865 they have ad.
vanced more than the white race, hence
the jealousy, the persecution, a State.
hypocrisy.
Puck" recently published a fine car.
toon on its front page. 1t was the fat
man from Georgia, raised on his liquor
drinking to the lean man from Maine
Georgia was imbibing from a bottl,
marked Lemon Phosphate, the mar
from Maine, tall, lean and lank, wa.
imbibing from a bottle marked "Colt
Tea" And thus hypocrisy, through
the laws assailing personal liberty. ex.
tends from Maine to Georgia.-Chestel