The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1909-01-22
State Prohibition From the FEEDER
al Court Stand Point.

phere Of prohibition is but the
charge of District Judge Speer to
the grand jury at one OF his Federal
district courts. held at Savannah,
Ga. The article viii be read with
interest and profit and viii serve to
show to all state prohibition it is as
viewed from a Federal court stand
point.
The charge is 50 replete with
truths that appeal to the higher
nature that none can read it with
out being elevated by having done
50.
Already the most astounding
benefits have been experienced by
the prohibition law. Why, even
the dumb brutes, who have been
subjected to the service Of man,
would if they could, thank God for
prohibition. The hard driving and
neglect Of the drunken negro, and
the drunken whiteman as we'll, have
been succeeded by kindliness and
attention. The state of Georgia IN
twelve months will gain incalculable
advantage in the improvement OF
stock alone, because drunkards no
/ longer handle and drive them. \
prominent mill man in Macon, one
Of our best citizens, assured me
that. while heretofore he could not
get his men to work before Tuesday
or Wednesday after the Saturday
night debauch, now that whisky is
gone. bright and early Monday
morning they are at the engine, the
spindle, and the loom. Labor,
which was almost impossible to OBJ
tain through the rural districts, is
now plentiful, and the work has
/ Just begun Little more than a
year ago / heard experienced con-
tractors complain that many of
their laborers would work only a
day or two in a week to obtain
enough money for support, and the
small amount of food consumed
and then quit work until the money
was gone. The police courts OF
such great cities as Macon, Augusta
and Atlanta, when contrasted with
| their former methods, have prac-
tically gone out of business. The
| offences formerly engaging their at
tention are now not committed
This will be found true in the
superior courts and the county
courts throughout the state OF
Georgia. Where a week or two
weeks of the peoples time and
Imoney were expended upon the
criminal docket, it will not bear
out my experience if they do not
finish in a day, or two days, | vel
remember when | was young so.
licitor general that in one county il
my circuit the sale of liquor was
forbidden. Early Monday morning
the tall, stalwart, clear-eyed people
Cleanly, manly, quiet, temperate
, and discreet would gather in the
county seat. By the second day ~
were through with the crimina
docket. In an adjoining county
with the same lands, the same
climate, and the same people, otter
of the same families, the sale o
liquor was present. The faithful
Judge was prompt to call the Crimi
nal docket at the first moment
but it was usually true, that, will
! | all the energy and dispatch of it
officers, at least two weeks were re
quired for its disposition. The
looks of the people were different
In one county there was the tenn
2 perate life. where hope elevates anC
, Joy brightens. In the other tn
, countenances of the people wer
sodden. There was the bleared an'
! bilious eye, the lurid visage, tn
unehorn Jaws, and not unfrequentl.
the unbathed person, which dispell
f ed in the court an odor that in tn
1 language of John Wesley on one oc
casion did not smell like balsam.
; In a short time after the abolition
of the liquor traffic, in the nobl
city of Athens, | have seen tn
t drunkard reformed and Tec0nsecrat
8 ed to the duties of manhood, hi
dingy house reprinted, his fence
rebuilded, his once pathetic, bare
: foot, dirty little children clean
well-fed with bright eyes Fastening
to school, and the wife whose one
| worn and wasted features, in tn
i. happiness and pride of his resurrec
ton, had regained the lovelines
and charm of youth.
Il have not discussed the mora
phases of this great question. bu
| merely those which seem to be lega
! and political. If the laws which
the people of our state have enacted
are enforced. the chief happiness Il
inure to those we love is the con
seriousness that henceforth, if we ex
pei the demon of the still from on
borders, confidence and peace vii
resume their place in happy homes
! among those dear objects of on
love, dearer to us than are the rud
dy drops that visit our hearts.
Once there was within my OWL
memory no such thing in all tn,
borders Of this Southland as the I'M
speakable crime. the bare mention
; of which will stir a fever in the
blood of age. and make the infant,
sinews strong as steel. 1t viii dis
appear from our civilization wher
the brain of the docile African, ever
of the lowest order. is no longer in.
/ i \