The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-03-07
SUNDAY MORNING
Demopolis Has Lost
 Large Share Of Trade

better behaved in the stores. are sober to the point of reason and make walt Ing on them more pleasant than in wet days. It was a confirmation of some evidence that was gotten at Sel- ma and at Uniontown.
 Wherever the negros trade in community overshadows the white trade, as In the retail business of the Black Belt, there is an undisputed bet termen of relations. There is less dan- ger of collision on the streets between negroes and whites than before.
 It should be remembered. however, that Demopolis with its five saloons paying a license of $1,000 each. was peacefully inclined so far as actual crime was concerned. Negroes pack ed the streets Saturdays to the point of discomfort. There was much drunk enness but the collisions were few. Crime was not the menace that it was In Birmingham. With all this street congestion and boisterous con- duct. 1t may be said to have been only repulsive to the whites and not very dangerous, so well did the om- cers have the situation in hand
 Evidence of drunkenness on the Demopolis streets Is now at mini- mum. The arrests for this offense are practically none since January l. Other arrests caused indirectly by drink have materially decreased The mayors court, which in the "halcyon days of wet rivalled a nickelodeon In the splendor of Its numbers and che swift going, now has dwindled to a side show and a poor one at that.
 An Isolated Drunk.
 One case of drunkenness amused the court a few days ago. Mayor Mer- iwether told of a young man Who could not shake the habit of coming to Demopolis for his smidgeon. The going this time was hard. He had forgotten all about prohibition. Didn't read the papers and there was no elec- tion In the county. He was not dis mayed, however. and accumulated handsome jag in an alley or on the roof or was 1t in an enclosed cab that negro drives through the streets for the special benefit of the thirsty pas sengers?
 Anyway. the rural jag was hauled into court. There was one salaam, then another, and then another. Fin ally he abjectly explained to the Mayor that he had bought half dozen bot ties of lemon extract and found on draining their contents that, to his surprise, they contained whiskey in stirring proportions. The surprise and the ingredients completely took him off his feet and the cops yanked him from the sidewalks into the court. That was the last he knew-of the town and the world. It was liquor fit for an adder. It is the premium, however, that must be paid these days for the precious tags.
 The court fined the boy the heavier for his blank memory on the point of who sold him the lemon extract. His partner, who was still in comatose Sta nf spot around which corner he got his inertia though he told afterwards of getting 1t in a bottle of shoe polish. It Is safe to say that the bootblack elsewhere is raking off some nice profits.
 Planters are Uneasy.
 These scattering sales of blind tigers and the incoming express and freight lots represent the consumption of liquor in this city. There are a few here who have misgivings of the fu- tnre of the plantation. They think they can see their fields peopled with the dreaded blind tigers, and the call of the negro's blood. now seemingly hushed, rising anew in its fierce beck oning. They fear that prohibition has done nothing other than transfer the scenes of drunkenness from police bounds to open and unprotected high ways. The change not to be noted at once, of course. but to develop with the temerity and the ingenuity of the ti- ger.
 The prohibition advocates. however. indulge no such premonitions. They say it is no time to prophesH evil. The good that now is evident they maintain will be permanent. They believe earn estly that the thirst for whiskey was not planted eternal in the Senegam- bian. They think he will forget his appetite even if'the tiger and his car avan should come his way.
 The prohibitionist declares that the evil was crushed when the beaded bubbles" stopped "winking at the brim." Take away the open saloon, remove the social attraction. the place of congregation, and the bulk of the damage has been forestalled. But in a town like this, where the saloons | never were interrupted in their reg ime. there are more opponents of pro- l hibition than are in Uniontown. or in