Omaha daily bee., 1911-02-12

lie dropped a note to me at the hotel in
viting me to como to his place where
could get anything to drink" Several
others who had registered at the same
hotel received the invitation lie sold beer,
whisky, gin and soft drinks over the bar,
and served the negroes with vile gin and
whisky i'm coop at the rear Of the place.
ON each visit I made to the place several
hopelessy intoxicated men were piled In
a dirty storeroom, the proprietor refusing
to permit them to leave the place until
they were sober.
Pull" Made Him Brave.
/ I inquired Of him how he dared go so
strong while others were partially hiding
their violations OF the law, lie boasted
that he had come back home to get rich
and that he had such a pull no one
could touch him. The man across the
street was Disgusting his sale OF beer
under various names and he was in
dignant. lie told me the newcomer would
queer the whole game" |he proprietor OF
another place was so angry even while he
sold beer back OF the iceboN. A few days
later drunken man stepped out OF the place
carrying a bottle OF whisky He was arrested
and testified he had bought the whisky OF
the man first mentioned. The accused man
told me that night 1t was all right and that
he would get off with a light fine. / grieved
TO think he probably was right, having
seen the drunken wretchcs black and white
piled in the store room, and because to me
filming did not seem a strong enough penalty
There was no filming. The court calmly sen
fenced him to serve 1000 days-nearly three
years-at labor, with the stone gang, and his
faith in pulls" was shattered l made a
I
negroes he had poisoned with vile whisky.
Meridian, Miss, has the locker system.
and one needs to be brought into the club
by some one who is known. Two societies
in the town entertained strangers m their
club rooms and served drinks to them.
visited both and drank in them, but when
l returned to Meridian again / discovered
both had issued stringent commands for
bidding members to bring strangers into
the club houses. Knoxville, Tenn, has both
the locker club and the near beer"
schemes. No one standing on his head on
/ top of the tower of the First Methodist
church could find drink. | walked into
several bars and drank before | discovered
the town was prohibition. WayCross, Ga,
was served on the drug store plan, and
| serious effort was made TO keep whisky
from the negroes, who however, were being
served by bootleggers.
Memphis Ignores Law.
( Memphis simply decided to ignore the
| fact that Tennessee has state wide pro-
hibition law. The saloons flourish openly
and ignore the law entirely. Mobile how
| ever twhe indignant over the passage of
| the Alabama law, partially observes it,
There is one place in Mobile which is a
good example of the ingenuity of the liquor
sellers in evading the law, The place seems
| innocent enough. / was directed TO 1t and
after passing through the front room came
to a large iceboX The door Of the icebox
opened, 1 walked through 1t into rear
| room, which was crowded with men and
boys drinking and carousing.
! The prohibition wave affected the small
! plantation centers Of Georgia, Mississippi
and Alabama peculiarly before the state
wide laws went into effect. There was a
more or less honest desire to keep the
whisky away from the negroes, and coun-
! try and plantation stores restricted the
sale to colored men in self defense When
| the larger clues ana towns began TO vote
dry the country and plantation store
! keepers decided 10 make tueir districts pro-
hibiuon, not from moral principles, but
because they felt indignant that the
saloon keepers in larger places es
capped paying license while they bore the
burden. They substituted express orders
for open selling of liquors. ! have seen
orders for as high as forty-eight quarts
Of whisky sent and when the goods ar
rived the whisky was delivered by the
storekeeper to his regular trade" At
two places the storekeepers did not so
tlTDUl ToTma1ity # al ba
toners whether or not they wanted
whisky, but sent in weekly orders in their
names. Nor was 1t difficult for persons
who had forgotten or neglected to order
whisky to get It, for the storekeepers kept
on hand a few "uncalled-for" bottles, upon
which it was easy to write name. 10 a
great extent this helped to keen the whisky
from the negroes, but the colorod popua-
ton was not FAR behind the white planter
in learning the tricks ] saw the result
of the arrival Of case Of cheap whisky
at cotton plantation near Admission, ana
# was not pleasant. About thirty nogroes,
men and women, young and old, were half
crazed with the liquor which was devourcd
greedy. and the orgie lasted two days.
The whites IN that district were i'm terror
/ until the supply Of liquor was exhausted.
Chicr Change In Labels.
Atlanta came in out Of the wet and
prohibtionists rejo;ced. The chief change
was I'm the labels on the bottles which
proclaimed that the stuff contained only I
per cent alcohol. orders Tor beer IN un-
marked and unstamped bottles were srut
to the brewerIes, and labels printed Ina
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