The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1911-07-05
MY REPLY.

in The Laurens Advertiser under date
of June 21st in which the writer
scores the city council for allowing
the near beer to be sold here and
brands me for using poor judgment in
opening the near beer saloon. / have
the following to say:
One would think, who read the ar
ticle that / had run the lowest dive
in the state and had disgraced the
city for a century to come. | will
ask the writer does he know of any
one who has gotten intoxicated at my
place? No he don't and | defy any
man to come to my face and recall one
instance, when a person has got in
toXicated | opened the near beer sa-
loon, not to disgrace the town or make
the people drunk, but to try and earn
living for my family. / have run
the place as moral as it could possibly
be, the doors and windows being wide
open so every one passing and those
on the inside could see just what went
on. Nothing has been concealed in
any way. AS | said, l opened the place
not because ] was green as to the
laws governing same. / could find
no law against the sale of near beer
in the Statute and did not think
city council could make a law which
1t seems as If in some way they have
done. But, in my opinion if a test
case Is made | will be upheld by the
higher courts.
The council tried hard enough to
convict me on two different occasions
but failed to do so. The writer goes
on to say that the near beer should
be stopped but he fails to give his rea-
son. Can he or anyone else prove that
| have violated any law of the good
old commonwealth. If SO, do it, Does
not the State law read as follows:
Any person who sells or gives away
in the State of South Carolina any
liquors or beers, if drunk to an eX-
cess will produce intoXication?" So
has the near beer produced intoxica-
ton? No, it has not, and person
could stand and drink it till it runs
out of his eyes and it would not hurt
him. Yet it must be closed. 1t must
be stopped. Show cause. If | did
run a low dive along whisky drink
ing, gambling, etc, then say close
me at once, but | have not-there
are far worse things going on in Lau-
rens than the near beer. Are not my
wife and babies entitled to a living
as we'll as any one else. If not, why
have more sense than to offer some
thing for sale that | know is i'm viola
tion of the law. | can name a num-
Der of towns within a radius of 100
miles that have near beer saloons.
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