The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1909-05-13

4
ton is a good thing for a town. Ad
vocates of the saloon, driven b!
financial motives. and anti-saloor
| men, altruistic but sometimes ex
IRENE in their statements ant
often even fanatical, are battling
in almost every state and thei
press bureaus are issuing enough
highly seasoned propaganda litera
ture to wad the guns of history
Their claims are contradictory.
The situation seems to call fol
an impartial statement based upor
actual conditions as found in a city
which has been dry for at Least
one year.
Decatur has $4,000 people and q
little of almost every kind of life
known to city. 1t has been dry
for a year and the people have just
elected a new dry mayor, whose in
struction is to see to 1t that the
local option law is rigidly enforced
The town is normally republican
but the new mayor If democrat
His republican adversary was ar
avowed wet and for that he fell
This seems to show that Decatur
likes to be dry.
There are a whole lot of Local
and state questions which come In
to involve the situation, but the
following statement of conditions
in Decatur is impartially writer
and may be taken to reveal the APP
proximate fact:
This is not dead town." finan
cially, industrially or socially. The
factories are running, everyone
seems to be busy and the writer
does not remember of having visit
ed town wherein there are more
pleasantfaced people to the city
block, where the people seem to be
having better time in wholesome
ways "a well-groomed horse is a
popular luxury and where so few
ragged people are seen.
This is a dead town." socially
if sporting town" may be called
a live one. 1t is 10 o'clock at night
and the writer is looking from q
hotel window down upon the main
business street. 1t is deserted
There are no sounds, there is nc
ribaldry there or in the hotel. Some
$4,000 people are somewhere;
suppose they are at home, many OF
them asleep. In an hour few
hundred people will leave the the
aters. Ben Hur" and vaudeville
are the rival attractions. There
are few score people attending
the moving picture shows. The
morning newspaper scheduled so
cial, musical or religious meetings
at the various churches for every
night this week. The town is base
ball mad.
suppose 800 men are at their
clubs. Those who drink may drink
there. Members keep bottles in
lockers. In one club, at least it is
possible to take a warm bottle
from a locker and exchange it for a
| cool bottle to be found in an ice
box. This local option works nc
hardship on tipping club mem
bers or people who can buy booze
in quantities and drink from side
boards. The mail order houses in
Louisville, st. Louis, Chicago, send
spirits in, while beer, shipped In
potato or flour barrels, or unsus
picious boxes, comes in from
nearby wet towns. such as Spring
field, Bloomington and Peoria. The
poor man who cannot afford to buy
a bottle or case may go without
or take a trolley ride.
The train arriving here on Satur
day nights, II o'clock, is called the
booze special" because 1t brings
into the city from Peoria, pack
ages, boxes or barrels unmarked
and consigned to 25 to so Decatur
citizens. These people meet the
| special and cart their packages
home for Sunday or week consump
ton.
There are 80 soft drink parlors
in the town, converted saloons
where pop, ginger ale and waite
wagon beer are dispensed. Tit
latter tastes like the real thing, bu
it is said to contain less than one
half of one per cent alcohol, thu
alcohol having been evaporated a
the brewery. The drys object Il
this, because it is a malt beverage
and they have token their cas'
into court. There have been in ;
year nearly 100 arrests for illega
selling, boot Logging (peddlinl
from bottle or soliciting), blin'
tiger or selling in soft drink par
lors. The booze sold thus. lik'
some that is imported, is said t.
be of poor quality. Jim Sheets,
farmer, drank one two finge
smile" in blind tiger, and In al
hour fell dead. The local news
papers declared that the smile
did the business.
The city is said to have game
1