The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-04-11
MUCH GLOOM
 IN PULLMAN
 -- Men Who Paid Licenses Were Indicted. THE CASE LOOKS BAD Town Was Excited Over Courts
 Decision.S
 - Hist of Dealers Who Took Out 1i- cen..s and Who ,4Are Now Iadieted.-ro Lose Licease
 Money, Too.A .4I@

The saloon men of Gull man County have been hit hard by the decision Of the Alabama Supreme Court upholdins the proh ibition law of the Hast Legis- iature. It appears that thtur case Is hopeless.
 nected with the sale of liquors in Cuilman County who are under indict-' ment for violating tho State prohibi- tion law. They are the only saloon proprietors who unanimously agreed to defy and test the constitutiolAslity or the prohibition law.
 But they staked too muca., They seem to have been entrapped. Ir open 1y violating the prohibition law by continuing open their saloons a after January 1, 190S these dealers we're le- gafly advised that the indicti nents would fall for couple of reasons. One was, as alleged. that the electio1r was held one day too soon by which lpquor was voted out of Cullman County The other was that the local option law un- der which the election was held ist un- constitutional
 There was consternation among tthe Cullman dealers. however, when Cirouit Judge D. W. Speake instructed st February the grand jury of Cullms m County to disregard the licenses hc Id by the saloon proprietors as if the y had never been issued. It will be rt'- called that Probate Judge Burke. on his interpretation of the law, issues licenses to ten applicants on January 2 , Getting these licenses the saloon meSi proceeded to open their saloons fol business in the same old way.
 The men who in Cullman paid for their licenses this year and procured them are: Al Richter, J. J. Nixon. Jacob Kullman, c. F. Waisman and IVY RaAa J. H. Krenehaus and Frank Arndt. all of Cullman. and J. M. Nixon of Hance- vile and Otto Schille of Garden City.
 These and more than two dozen more were indicted at a special term of the court called in Cullman County. They were arrested and put under bond for violating the prohibition law. The election by which they had been voted out of business had been held last De- cember a., :
 Where the hopes of these parties have gone glimmering is by the decla- ration in the opinion of Justice Thomas c. Mcclellan of last Thursday. that 1t matters not if the election in Cullman County was valid or invalid. or if it was held under a constitutional or an unconstitutional law. Prohibition went into effect for sure Jan. 1, 1908, in all the counties which had held an cleo tion resulting adversely to, the liquor trade. The mere holding of an cleo tion--the fact of the legal voters hav- ing gone to the polls and expressed their will on the subject at aAtime thought to be legal and under law thought to be good and constitutional this act of the people was sufficient, resulting. as it did. to put prohibition into effect in Cullman County.
 The opinion of Justice Mcclellan did not decide the Cullman cases specif- cally but this effect is the sound in- ference to be drawn from the decision. And this was what was told many anx- lous men of Cullman who rang up the clerks of the Supreme Court Thursday and Friday. No hope was held out to