The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-02-24
BLIND TIGERS IN TALLADEGA Have Troubles But Still
 Operate. = POLICE. OFFICERS DESPAIR They Are Alert But Violators Are
 Too Shrewd. The Sheriff Declares He is Unable to 2 See Any Decrease in Crime
 Since Prohibition Struck
 The Town.
BY CHAS. l.. HAROLD.


 Talladega. Feb, 23-(SpeciaD-The blind tiger that operates here has his troubles but he operates.
 That is not denied. He finds no encouragement from the courts. They have dealt sternly with the prohibit tion violators. They have on convic- tion, imposed a heavy fine and in variably imposed the sentence of hard labor for first offenses. The police officers seem fairly alert but they despair of running down the bootleg ger" and are confused to locate the prestidigiator who stands behind his counter.
 That last named, blind tiger may sound like an atrocious animal. The name might indicate that something dreadful and alarming infests the old but progressive city of Talladega Not so. He Is no more awful or distin- guishable than the class of tiger who issues his snarl at Decatur. He sim ply is endowed with that clairvoyant power of seeing officers before they get to his place and if that faculty Tails, he can resort readily to the sleight- of-hand. which is to say, if an unlabeled black bottle sits emptied on the counter or in the corner and a suspecting policeman has intrudeJ upon the scene, there is forthwith pro- duced that more refined and less foaming bottle whose contents, Tn con- formity with the supreme court de- clsion would not. If drunk to excess, induce that state of mind which impels the customer to think of his wife as football when otherwise he would adore her.
 Discriminating Tigers.
 But even the blind tigers are most discriminating and the streets of Tal- IadeRa nrarfiraIlxr ri oP hn l. nuisances. Residents tell you that they, their wives and children can now drive out of town and return home after dusk on Saturdays without jeopardizing lives. This they could not do during the saloon era Negro farm hands-and a few whites-got loaded with "corn" Saturday afternoon and with mouths hurling profanity, would drive back home recklessly. They were said to be terrors to the peaceful citizens passing the highways.
 The express company Is hauling in large quantity of liquor. Some of 1t goes to the negro. Some of it goes to the poor cotton mill operative when perhaps beer would have sufficed if saloons were here. But the damage on this score Is the exception rather than the rule because owners of the cotton mills and of the farms on which negroes work. testify to benefits under prohibition. They declare that the ef- ficiency of labor has been increased.
 One cotton mill operator. declares that since prohibition went into effect fathers of children on whom they re- He'd for support have now become workmen themselves. Tn the saloon time, 1t is said, this class of parents was the treasurer only of the home and beastly one at that.
 "He would receive the harJ-earned wages of his children" said the mill owner, "and divide 1t in halves. With the first half he would stuff his sys- tenn with whiskey and beer and with the last half he would buy scant food and occasionally a calico dress for the little girl who did the work. Many of this kind are now decent enough to go to work themselves. think the transformation has been wonderful fin It's benefits to the mill operative There was a time when the saloons were in town that we had to pay out money for three or four employees weekly under garnishment proceedings The proceedings were brought by saloon proprietors to whom the opera lives owed their whole two weeks wages. Since prohibition the instances are rare that we are served with gar- nishment papers and then they are not of course from whiskey or beer deal- ers."
 Doing Some Business.
 But evidently the blind tiger Is do- Ing some business in this little city although in the local option election of 1907 the saloons were tabooed by vote of five to one. The soft drink stands must be doing something more than merely sell lolly-pop. or their