The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-08-11
Trip 10 MI. CARMEL,
Gypsies-BumhIe Bee ccrn--Prohibi.
ton Speeches.

outing, a party of three of us from this
place, procured a comfortable carriage
with a good pair of well matched
horses and a careful driver, on last
Thursday the 9TH inst, and proceeded
through the country by way of Cal
hours Mill to Mt. Carmel, returning
by the upper route via Island Ford
and WarrentOn.
We found the crops of both corn and
cotton, with here and there an eXcep'
ton where the land is very sandy, bet
ter than we had wei seen them at this
time of the year-especially the up
land corn.
We passed one field of corn which
attracted our special attention, not on
account of its superbness, but of its
dimmutiveness. 1t vas suggested that
it might be of the humble bee variety,
as a bee might stand on the ground
and suck the pollin from the top-most
tassel.
We are not sure who it belongs to,
but it is possible that it is u friend
p. A. Cheatham of this city, as we be-
lieve he owns some land in that local
lity. Of course, he will disown it. We
can only account for it upon the sup
position that the owner started out to
work it on the Williamson plan, that
is to stunt it, and then neglected to
unstunt it by a liberal application of
nitrate of soda and other fertilizers, as
that plan contemplates.
When we reached Mt. Carmel we
found that the gypsis had about cap
tured the place, as they were there in
great numbers with a perfect caravan
of %fop-eared mules, spawned horses,
women and children and every con-
ceivable style of vehicle.
Noticing q small collection of indi-
viduals in and around the school
building, we learned, on enquiry, that
it had been extensively advertised that
there would he a prohibition or anti
dispensary rally in the town on that
day that several prominent prohibit
ton speakers had been invited to de-
liver addresses. but for some reason
or other the expected crowd had not
materialized.
Having the day before us we con-
cluded to take in the speeches. So in
company with some half dozen Others
we>repaired to the school house where
the exercises were to be held and on
reaching there found about two dozen
others, including a few ladies and
children.
The meeting was presided owe by
that dignified and venerable old gen.
tleman, Col. E. A: Mars, who intro
duced, as the first speaker the Rev.
Mr.. Best of Mccormick.
The gentleman is a Methodist divine
and of course, the greater part of his
address was made up of his personal
experiences. He told places where he
had pursued his calling, among which
was the mountain section of this State,
where he had spent some three or four
years.
We gathered from his address that
he did not object to the dispensary
per sc, but to the quality of the liquors
furnished and the high prices at which
they were sold by that institution
contrasting the same, in both of these
particulars, with that which could be
had from the ''moonshiners'' of the
mountains.
The next and only other speaker
was the Rev. DR.. Moffatt, President of
Erskine College. DR.. Moffatt is q
pleasant speaker, and seems to be
thoroughly impressed with the belief,
that if we could only get rid Of the dis
pensary we would have an ideal state
Of affairs in this county.
He set out by stating that he would,
to some extent, follow the practice OF
his Methodist brethren, and recite
some of his personal experiences.
He made the remarBabe statement
that he never saw a person under the
influence of whiskey until he was over
fifteen years of aye, and then he had
to 90 away some fifteen miles from
home to see that one; that this person
was a young man who had drunk I'M
til he had delirium tremens; that see
ing the condition of this young man
and hearing his awful cutcries and
yellings, he resolved then and there
that he would ever afterward abstain
from strong drink and would fight it
with all the ability with which he
might be endowed, which resolve he
has persistently carried out.
So you see, Mr.. Editor, there is still
a great deal Of truth in that old say
ing that cit is an i'll wind that blows
nobody good" for who can tell but
that if it had happened that instead Of
it's being this extreme case Of the evil
consequences of strong drink as exhib.
tied in the case of this young man who
saw snakes and a host of other tedious
creatures in his %delerium, the DOCTORS
first experience had been with some of
his fellow-students at Erskine College,
who had gone out to Donalds where
some of the boys used to 60 to get a lit
tie, and on their return were slightly
under the exhilera,ing effects of what
they had procured, the consequences
would have been altogether different,
and the cause Of prohibition been
minus one of its staunchest advocates,
to say the least of it.
The doctor, like the speaker who
proceeded him, laid great stress upon
the quality of the liquors dispensed
from the dispensaries and especially as
to the exhorbitant prices at which the
same was sold.
This struck US as rather a lame argu-
ment in favor of prohibition, as un-
doubtedly the higher the price at
which the stuff is sold, the less of it
will be drunk. Old Cit.