The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1909-05-30
4 TOWN BOTH
WET AND DRY
BRISTOL is PARTLY IN VIRGINIA
AND TENNESSEE-STR d.
VIpEs sTATEs-A UNIQUE CON-
DITIoN OF AFFAIRS coNFRoNTs
CITIZENS THERE.

The state line between Tennessee
and Virginia runs through the middle
of a main thoroughfare OF the town OF
Bristol The prohibition law goes
into effect in Tennessee July LIST, but
local option prevails in Virginia, and
unless the drys can control the SEN
timent and the votes of the majority
in the Virginia half of Bristol that
town will present an odd spectacle to
the worlds eye after a special cleo
tiOn which has been ordered for July.
One-half of it will be dry; the other
half wet. According to the Memphis
Appeal the liquor interests are COM
bining to make the fight in the Vir-
ginia Bristol a memorable conflict.
They are hoping for victory. If they
gain it the Appeal thinks that many
liquor dealers from Nashville, Chatta-
nooga and Memphis will set up in
trade in Bristol, Va, in the hope of
retaining some part of their old bust
ness.
The outlook is interesting. If the
Virginia half of Bristol votes in favor
Of the vets the dweller in Tennessee's
half OF the town can step across the
street, get a drink and I'll his pocket
flask without much loss of time. The
question is how such man will stand
socially in the community on his own
course of time, as much as his repu-
tatiOn and his business are worth for
him to be even seen on the alcoholic
sidewalk. The hitherto imperceptible
state line, of which no account has
been taken among neighbors, may be
transformed into a veTitabIe chasm in
the minds of the teetotaIlers across
the way. The shops that depend for
prosperity on the custom of the yir-
tuous and abstemious will have to re-
move to the other bank of the chasm
long line Of liquor saloons on one
side of the street may face the dry
goods emporiums. groceries, meat
shops and drug stores of the prohi-
bitionist section. For, of course, the
prOhibitioniSt women will not do their
shopping and marketing on the wick
ed side. A resident of the, Virginia
section may become persona non gFata
in the Tennessee quarter. Two
houses. both alike in dignity, in this
divided Southern Verona, may de-
velOp, on the question of rum or no
rum, such a feud as will make the
Capulet and Montague quarrel seem
pals in legend.
Interesting the outlook certainly is,
especially as the two parts of the
town are essentially and inseparably
one. No river divides them. People
who work in Virginia dwell in Ten
neSSee. and vice versa. The situation
is novel, one that seems to belong ex-
clusively to the enlightened twentieth
century.
1t is an odd spectacle, but by no
means an unprecedented one The
two Kansas Cities present a more pc
GUITAR condition. The one, a city of
almost 100000 people. is located in
Missouri where WhiskeV is sold free
". The other, a cit yOf about 100 900,
is in Kansas, which has a statewide
prohibition law The two cities are
divided by a street called State Line
street There the unusual sight is
witnessed of one side of a street
being very, very dry, and the other
side as wet" as the saloons can
make it. The whole side of the street
is taken up with them.