The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-04-15
TROY HAPPY IN NEW STATE Would Not Go Back to Dispensary. PROHIBITION WORKS WELL But Men Who Want Liquor Still
 Get It. Bushes. Men ana F.rmer- Thiak Re- nsevsi .f Ev,l Has worked Great Improvement in Nesre
 Lssor.
 
BY CHARLES [. HAROLD.

Troy, April 14.--(Speciai. )--An un- promising youngster ambled into the Mayors Court to explain to the city's head how and why he had accumulated a handsome jag the night before. It was typical morning after. though
 the young mans memory seemed clear
 on antecedents.
 Mayor Folmar had wearied of the old
 story that the drunks had ordered
 their whiskey from this point. and
 that. It seemed that blind tigers were plying their business somewhere in the city precincts. but 1t was not possible to locate them. So with a suddenness that nearly swept the pris- oner of the stand, the recorder asked Where did you order your whiskey?'' The ferocity of the question implied wisdom on the part of the court, and induced the prodigal to answer: 'T found it.s
 Going into details, the defendant, after a pause. told of lonesome trip home In the dark. On the sidewalk,
 the giistenins of bottle attracted his eye. He wanted to be good, but his curiosity bested him and he bent down to pick up the bottle. With his nose he assayed the contents as of the
 standard. That was the last he knew. It tripped him. 1t threw him and made material for the police.
 But that was all the distance the Mayor could go in the direction of the blind tiger.
 Conditions Satisfactory. Notwithstanding the Mayors ses-
 sions are occasionally alled with such
 seances as these. bespeaking the ille-
 gal sales of .booxe--horribie quality at that-Acondftions brought about by prohibition are satisfactory to the majority of Troy citizens Men of all walks expressed pleasure at the changed state of things. Drunkenness has sharply decreased. disorderly con-
 duct has somewhat abated and labor has grown in efficiency as compared with the conditions when the dispen- sary was in operation.
 The reader should know that the dis pensary was about as we'll established in Troy as anywhere In Alabama. It began by special enactment Jan. 1, 1900. and ran continuously for nearly eight years. It made good profits. Some say 1t could have, by wiser man. agement. turned more shekels to the public good, but It's results speak to posterity in terms of splendid school building. beautiful streets and other material improvements.
 Yet while the dispensary was doing all these things for the city. before its ordained period of existence had ex- pired, the people rose in their might ana smote 1t dead at the ballot box 1 That was in the fall of 1907. when the dry wave swept furiously over the state. It demonstrated that the people never intended the dispeusary to be 3 permanent institution. Infiamed by preachments on the moral question. the voters flushed with shame at the very existence of the undignified project, and determined to bring about the end. A,ss-~
 Troy Laid 1t Low.
 The campaign that followed was rare in dispensary history in AIabarna. without the militant majorities of the rural districts, the city of Troy, through the verdict of ballots, alone, tore down the institution. Tn the other places visited on this tour the dispen- sary met It's fate by an indignant voice of the entire bounty Here the townspeopie themselves seem to have wearied of its operation. looked on 1t as kind of civic cancer and brushed 1t aside.
 But the strangest thing of the cam paign was the voting down of a tax raise at the same election. There 1t was proposed to take away the dispen- sary. It was known best as a reve- nue producer. Primarily it was re-