The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-08-11
is PROHIBITION A FARCE
So Questions S. Mays Ball Of the
Law in Mississippi.
[Leslie's Weeklyl.

Weekly.
went with him to investigate the sta
tionary" blind-tigers and take photo
graphs of them. In the places pnoto,
graphed, either whiskey or beer, anu
sometimes both, can be bought; IN fact
it was bought. The negro women OF
Jackson purchase, say, a gallon or SO
of cheap whiskey, and, dilutlng IL
with about four-fifths water (or as
some .%Jacksonians claim, sulphuric
acid find it much easier and mucn
more profitable to maintain a llVeil-
hood as liquor sellers than by taxing
in washing" One negro woman was
arrested on suspicion in Jackson Wnile
the writer WAS there. The ponce
searchers found, under her dress, tled
to her corset strings, many pint oo.-
ties of liquor; some of the strings pe,
ing without bottles proved she hao
been doing good business.
The police suspected a certain house
as being q blind tiger, but the most
persistent search failed to develop any
evidence. The officers were about to
give up in despair when one of them
noticed a nail projecting from the cell
ing. He called for a step ladder, took
hold of the nail, the ceiling gave, and
disclosed a stock Of liquors and beer.
A certain. man, suspected of running
q blind tiger, had a habit of driving
about the city, after which, when his
horse showed WEAKNESS, he would
hitch his horse up next doorito thepo-
lice station. Some one suggested that
there might be something strange
about that buggy, and the police ar
rested the driver and found a false bot
tom to the buggy, which daily carried
innumerable bottles of beer and whis-
key.
The qneen of all the blind tigresses
is a negress, named Smithers, who has
been frequently arrested and convic-
ted, always coming up with her one
hundred to two hundred dollar fine
with no trouble at all. Recently this
negress who is wonderfully bright,
was caught with the goods" on by
use of marked money. She was &C
quilted, for the witnesses appearing
against her were two out-of town de-
tectives, whose word the jury COM
posed of white men, declined to accept
in preference to the defendants.
On the trains in Miss, there are said
to be sold the writer didn't see them
two kinds of packages-one called
Honey Boy" price fifty cents; the
other, a little larger, called a "Cracker
Jack" price seventy-tive cents-which
if the purchaser understands the COM
bipation, will furnish something in
liquid form that is said to cheer and
has been known tc inebriate. A news
boy was recently taken off of his route
at Utica, Miss. tried for violation of
the prohibition law, and sentenced to
sixty days on the county convict farm.
At the time of the writer's stay in
Jackson, the city was full Of 80 called
near beer saloons, wherein to q prohi-
bitionist, the near-beer was served;
to a man carrying the right ''sign,"
the real beer, and sometimes any,
thing else he wished in the way OF
drinkable alcoholic. The writer was
told of n case in the vicinity of
Jackson, where q man carried a recep-
tacle on his person containing whis-
key to which was attached a tube.
Sucks" at fifteen cents were sold
right and left. Since the visit Of the
writer to Jackson, namely on June 10
the Supreme Court has handed down
a decision that no drink containing
any alcohol, not even near beer, could
be sold. 1t was reported that immedi.
ately all the near beer saloons were
closed by Mayor Crowder in Jackson:
also that Vicksburg and some other
towns have paid no attention to the
decision. The writer does not vouch
for the latter statement.
A man named Berry whose case was
appealed to, and decided in, the Su-
preme Court June Sth last, was selling
a most insidious cider. The good peo-
pie of his community demanded the
immediate breaking up of bis business
he did stop for u time, then opened
again, claiming his cider was harmless
One of the pillars of the church in
Miss. was induced to sample this CT
der as a test. He did so once, twice,
thrice; and he is reported to have &C.
quired the worst OF all jags, viz, that
on cider spiked. The revenue officers
soon closed the place.
There were formerly so-called social
clubs all over Jackson. they have
since 1904, been broken up. City At
torney William Hemingway, of Jack
SON. showed the writer an application
for membership in n of the raided
clubs dated one day, elected the same
day. and q requisition for liquors
made by the members. These. forms,
the writer found, or similar ones, are
in use all over the South. One of the
old buildings Of the city was in years
gone the most popular of all the blind
tigers in jackson. The prohibitionists
say that the tiger therein has been
killed; the "wets" say not. All the
writer knows is that he couldn't get
in when he attempted to. Some years
ago the back water which reaches, in
flood times close to the old building,
did not recede as it was accustomed to
do during low water of the Pearl Riv-
er. A man who saw it told the writer
that the obstruction which prevented
the waters from returning to the river
was a dam of corks thrown or deposit
ted from the old building.
A man named Howard, who had
been brought into court .innumerable
times for violation of the prohibition
law, and whose wife was supposed to
do most of the "smoothn handling of
the business, had his place raided
some time ago. Before the police
could get into the door, the man it is
said pushed his wife and the contra
band articles into a large trunk and
sat there while. the lofficers searched,
but found nothing. He was after
ward convicted of another similar Of
Tense and fined 5000 with the under