The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-02-12

" make their homes cheap The con stant appeal started the stream of home sekers to the county. It grew larger and larger with the years and they were happy and prosperous who en- tered into the colonization scheme The magic results have been told and re. told. IL fs ussiess to recite again the taie of the German thrift. The scores of carloads of strawberries. potatoes. fruit and other farm products that move annually from this center speak the story of prosperity themselves,
 But the promoters and immis1Aaaon agents say they were just starting when prohibition hit the country. It was received by them with a mlghtier shock than by any one else in this re- zion It was . fatal blow.
 eYou cannot expect the German to lio- cate here during prohibition" said one of the agents. You may as well in- yite him here, saying that he can come and work. work hard, but must nave no joy. You might as well tell him he can work and do well, but he must leave his pipe behind. Beer to him IS food He was raised with 1t, on 1t and around it. To drink it Is q part of his nature, and is inseparabie. lt is one of the first questions asked when they are solicited to locate here; Is prohibition here? We can only answer that prohibition Is In Cunman and In Alabama. That sounds the death -knell. Many families were in- tending to come here from the Middle West, good and hard working citizens But they have renounced their pur- pose. They say they can find plenty other dry places to go besides Ala. bama." s
 Banker Beyer told of seven families that had located here before prohibi- v. hfbition was distasteful to, them and they skipped. or course. the larger number of Germans who have acquired substantial property in the county VIII remain and live out the rest of their Authenticated lives. They could not vel. afford in their declining years 70 give up their farms to whose cultiva- tion they have devoted most oi tne,, productive years. But their kind Will hardly be added to in future years un- less things change. That Is the opin- ion of those connected with immigra- ton.
 Most of the merchants denounce pro- hibition as damaging to their busi- ness. They say that good line or trade brought here by the privilege of the Germans and Americans, too, to conrregate in friendly intercourse has been lost in part. It has resolved It. self now into geographical proposi- ton and Cullman has parted with it's own individuality as a mercantile cen ter. The farmers make less frequent visits to town under prohibition than they did before.
 c. A. Etiefelmeyer, although he Is an anti-prohibitionist, is inclined to the view that prohibition has not de- creased his business. He says the business of his house Is about the same He said. however, that he is storing more liquor in his home than he used to. He is stlll an anti. Some say that the reason Mir. Stiefelmeyer's business has not suffered Is that he depends more upon city trade and the trade from tho near country. And. too, there was a good prloe for straw. berries and potatoes last year.
 The city's revenue has been shot in- to many pieces by the new dry re- gime. Mayor Beyers declares that $4,- 900 derived from saloon licenses and about s1,000 receipts from lights and water by the power plant are now missing. He had to make up for it by raising licenses on all businesses and vacations and by levying licenses on industries that had hitherto by wise | policy been exempted. This readjust- Tnent caused untold dissatisfaction, ac- | cording to the mayor, and 1t Is even | yet a problem to provide for more | public school facilities that are badly | needed.
 No treatment of the subject of pro- | hibition in Cullman could overlook fa- nous Al Richter who has acquired the | name of fierce scrApper." To see him | and talk with him takes away the force of the nickname, for he has none of the fighting or impulsive in his manner. A large young paunchy Ger man who says he never took & drink | II IA f. A Richter he who secured a license in | the face of prohibition and boldly kept | hIs saloon open as before until the Su- preme Court June IS, 1908, declared | the prohibition law constitutional | Seven other saloon men kept open here | like Richter. But 1t Is said that dur ing all the protracted litigation thls man almost alone bore the heavy legal expense.
 When he was finally tried for viola ton of the law and fined $50 in one l court and $1O0 in another and had paid out his lawyers fees. he Is said to have | been several thousand dollars to the | bad This. of course, takes no ac- count of the loss in his business by | "confscation" of his property and fix | lures, as he puts it.
 "Yet "Scrapper Richter" is now rec oncIled. He has seen his fate, and al- though he did not woo 1t, he harbors no spoken hate for any one. He says1 he fought hard fight and simply lost. | against heavy odds. ..-
 T don't believe the prohibition wave l has left us yet" said he. Tt had to come, butt I didn't think it was com ing so soon. She has come and she's i a big one, don't you forget 1t. It is a | wide one. too. I have friends in Louis- | vile who beg me weekly to come there | to enter business again. Not for me more. kid. That was what they said | inN Tennessee. my friends in Chatta. nooga. You see now where they put l the skates to them.
 "No, have given up. It isn't worth | while again until the wave has gone | I will just keep plA4ng along here with | the bakery and restaurant"
 And with these words the rotund | Dutchman who Is known Statewide for his captivating genial disposition | bowed gracefully to little girl who l had come for bread and be awkwardly | filled a paper sack with cakes that had formerly mixed the myriads of gin flzzes. the rIvulets of cocktails and l the estuaries of highballs.
 But very nearly the whole town | likes Al iH he did sling the booze foE | SO long a period. He was once an ex l pert accountant in a bank of Gull |