The weekly true Democrat. (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1905-1912, 1907-09-06
THE SOUTH TO BE
TEMPERATE AND SOBER
The Sentiment Growing Stronger
Weekly In Every State.

Unce the home of whiskey, the South
is going dry.
A mighty moral movement has been
sweeping over the states south of Ma
son and Dixon's line and teaching the
principle that strong drink is the basis
of all that is evil.
So prompt has been the response Of
the people of Georgia, Texas, Missis-
sipp, Alabama and even Kentucky
have been swung into the prohibition
ranks.
Georgia has gone over outright, and
after January /, 1907, the law to which
Governor Hoke Smith has just attached
his signature will make il crime to
sell a drop of liquor anywhere within
the confines Of the state.
When the governor put his signature
to this law he deprived himself of some
sixty thousand dollars, for it is said
without liquor the big hotel in which he
holds a controlling share will cease to be
a paying proposition.
But the Governor never hesitated,
tor he, too, is a prohibitionist, and
sharing the great impulse that threat
ems to abolish the liquor trade IN the
South.
The Georgia colonies Of fiction and of
the stage, of real life, in fact whose
one most characteristic motion was
that which involved a crookng of the
elboW, and the raising of bit Of glass.
ware as far as the face, will exist no
more in the old State.
On August 6, When Gov. Smith
signed the state prohibition bill, there
were several hundred people in his of
flee, all who could crowd in, while the
capitol grounds at Atlanta were packed
to overlooking with hundreds of others.
AS soon as the Governor wrote his
name the crowd inside and outside the
capitol sang Praise God from Whom
all Blessings Flow"
USED SPECIAL PEN.
Gov. Smith used a special pen pro-
vided by a merchant of Atlanta, who is
a prOhibitionist. This pen is to be pre-
sented to Emory College, the Southern
Methodist institution of Georgia
The prohibition bills number was %. |
The measure originally was known as
senate bill No l. 1t was the twenty |
third bill to reach the executive office |
for approval, however, and that number |
displaced the senate No l.
To drink now IL will be necessary TO |
move to the north, lodging, of course, |
Maine, Kansas and North Dakota, !
which have proceeded Georgia in the
tetotaler ranks.
When Georgia cut off the liquor trade
It involved loss to the distillers and |
brewers of $40, 600, 600 yearly, and to
The state in lost revenues about ST.
BOO, 900.
Miss Lillian M. Stevens, president of
the Woman's Christian Temperance
Union, gives a large share of the credit
FOR the movement to the organization
whose chief she is.
In her opinion it was because public
men the country over, but especially in
he South, are beginning to believe that
he worst foe of a mans patriotism and
ais duty to the commonwealth is strong
rink; that they have resolved TO help
along the cause of better government
BY curtailing the opportunities of the
saloon.
The terrible race riots of Atlanta a
lew months ago are attributed to the
tendencies of Geor-
yia whisky. In the saloons have been
'omented much Of the race-prejudice
excitement.
Thus, though in elections the prohibi-
ionists have been able to cut but little
igure, nevertheless they contend that
heir never-ceasing campaign is bearing
ruit in the enactment OF these new
avs.
TEXAS GOING DRY.
Texas, beloved Of the small boy as
he home Of the desperate outlaw. bad
nen who could drink their quart Of fire.
water without blinking an eye, is the
asst place where one would think Of
boxing for the influence of the white
ibboners, yet more than one-half Of
he pa counties of the Unions biggest
'tate are dry, and it ie probability of
he not distant future that law as
tringent as Georgia. will be enacted.
Travellers who visit the smaller towns
md il necessary 10 resort 10 subter-
uges to get drink, and in many cases
nd it TO be impossible. County laws
nd local regulations have made the
,one Star State far more Puritanical
commonwealth than New York or Penn
ylvania, for example.
Tennessee and Mississippi, sharing in
he wave, have the spectacle Of county
fter county voting 10 MAKE liquor sell
" illegal. In Alabama II Is legal TO
ell liquor In the cities as late as 3 !
clock and in the country up TO 3
clock, but the saloonkeeper who keeps :
10 place open later than these hours
ans the peril Of being put out Of BUSH
ess after paying a heavy fine.
In Kansas the prohibition law. once
'eated as q joke, is now a stern real