Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1909-02-03
"Onlooker" Makes Some Sug'
gestions to The Lawmakers
Now in Session in Co
lumbia.

law makers with common sense
enough to do anything besides
drink whiskey, eat peanuts, kill
time and draw their pay. Now, as to
a game law, the trouble is not be-
cause game is killed out of season
or that the presenttlaw is not suffi-
cient to protect it; nor is the scarci,
ty of game caused by excessive
hunting. The truth is the eggs and
young are destroyed by the thou
sands by half breed dogs that prowl
around day and night. What we
need to afford proper protection is
just such law as was introduced
in the House the other day, which
provided tax of ten dollars on all
female dogs. That is a step in the
right direction, for the protection
of game, and also to prevent mad
dogs to great. extent. Had that
law passed it would have been of
great benefit in protecting game
birds and to the people of South
Carolina in many ways, and yet it
was killed at once, just for the lack
of little thought and practical
common sense, on part of those who
are supposed to represent our best
interests.
Now, as to prohibition: The peo-
pie have never asked for anything
else. They have never by their votes
or in any other way asked for a
dispensary, or even local option.
This local option is simply the dy-
ing grasp of the advocates and
ringsters of the old dispensary be-
cause they know that in some of
the counties that there are enough
of the ignorant class of people to re-
tain dispensary and that this fact
would keep prohibition from being
a success in those, counties that did
vote it out. A dry country with a
wet one on its borders is at dis
advantage andS does not get the full
advantage of prohibition that it
should now. If they do not interi
to give the people what they ask
for THAT is, statewide prohibition)
let them at least fix the local option
law so as to limit the sale of whis-
key to residents of the county in
which said dispensary is situated
and make the law so thatsa violation
t of ( iitwouId be just ;causes for. sthe
removal Of the dispensary when.
proof of such Illegal sale should,
be presented to the governor. As
the matter now stands the wet
counties make lot of trouble for
the dry ones. In similar way the
two laws against deadly weapons
are directly oppose to each other.
The law against carrying concealed
weapons W as and is good law and
should have remained just as it was.
Somebody whose desire to do some
thing smart got the better of their
common sense and good judgment
and enacted an unlawful, weapon
law which has practically killed the
good effects of the concealed weap-
on law and is responsible for the in
creased number of murders with the
more deadly shot gun than would
have been had this law not been
passed. The record will Show this
to be fact. Under the concealed
weapon law those who carried pis-
tolls did not try to hide them. and
you had an opportunity of knowing
when man was armed, while as it
is now they use every precaution to
hide them and you do not know who
is armed or who is not until you
are up against it. This fact forces
good man to have to go and in de-
fance of law so as to be able to pro-
tect himself against bad ones.
Trusting that our lawmakers will
give heed to these matters that con-
Germ us so much and from which SO
much could be derived and let some
others alone that are not worthy of
attention, i beg to remain an
ONLOOKER.
Wy rIJ