Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1912-01-04
Third District.

Speffaf soZke Neses.
skipped an issue of the News ON
ing TO the fact / thought the edito
would surely suspend until after tb
holidays, but he kindly informs me b
is running a country newspaper ant
never fails to send out the News on it
day. so file my excuse for not appear
ing on regular schedule as was writer
by me in my Christmas warning con
corning the little brown Jug Have
mt you already, mothers and fathers
read in different papers of our country
the awful destruction of our people
throughout the county, and the differ
ent crimes committed. There werS
more murders and shooting scrapet
this Christmas than any other Christ.
mas in the history of the last 10 years.
You know l said that somebody's darl.
ing would be shot down on the street:
or roadside during these holidays.
Well, didn't / write the truth Have
mt some of your poor broken hearted
mothers felt the keen sting of death
penetrate your heart? If not in your
own family, it occurred somewhere in
your territory, and if not directly, in
directly you felt the great shock, so,
for Gods sake, people, if you haven I
read the newspapers of the land, please
lookoyer the holiday issues, and read
for yourselves just what whiskey has
brought to the doors of thousands and
thousands of our race since wrote my
last article and sounded the bell of
warning You failed to keep your
eye on that boy of yours and failed to
! heed my warming. Yea, where is he
| today Yes, mother, be is gone from
you forever, and the darling son is in
the county Jail His case is not bail
able, and his life and liberty is now at
stake, and as said, some young man
had to be shot down in the bloom of
life. Every word l prophecied would
occur has come to pass, and the courts
and jails won't be clear of those cherg-
ed with murder. etc, for long time.
| 1t will take at least twelve months to
rid the courts of these holiday crimes
and criminals. If it hadn't been for
| that little brown jug, your son probab-
| ly would have been at home today.
! Instead of being there where do find
him? | find some of the young men
| were shot to death, and some we're
launched behind the bars of the jails.
All, the trouble and money the little
brown jug will cost you, dear fathers,
before the final wind up. Dear, poor
broken hearted mothers, those that
have had the misfortune to lose a
dear son, either under the influence of
whiskey by accident or death, or got
locked up in jail. let me kindly tender
my heartfelt sympathy to you, one and
all. God forbid we ever have again
in the history of our country such
drunken Christmas as experienced in
the past | have about come to the
point where l think it proper and nee
essary for me to become prohibition
list for the future welfare of my own
family and the rising generation.
Will say that in my home neighbor-
hood there was only one drunken lad,
and he was from Montlake, and could
have remained there for all the good
he will accomplish while over here.
Your humble servant had No. good
dinner as stated in the News, and a
number of friends from Whitwell at
tended. A great rabbit hunt was in
augurated, and number of sage fields
fred and about hundred rabbits were
slain. Christmas night ye writer had
a string band and an organ musical
and singing at my home and there was
quite a crowd attended this musical
and singing, and want to kindly
than one and all for your presence
and especially for your good moral
conduct, and will further state for the
benefit of the young ladies and gentle
men that we're present that there was
ut young man at the musical that
had drank drop of whiskey. If so it
could not be detected by anyone. So
let me compliment each of you. and
congratulate all of you through the
columns of the News, and all the rest |
of the people of the old Third District, |
for your happy Christmas, by being
wide wake aud ouly sober, not a
father or son noted for public drunken
ness was drunk Not even one arrest
throughout the bounds of the old |
Third during the holidays, SO l place
ibis district in the front ranks and at
the head of the list, and let me again |
thank all my neighbors, fathers and
mothers. for the way and manner you
conducted your own households and
your boys. Not one got drunk, cut or
stabbed or shot another, or even
fight of any description, the first
Christmas of the kind since the civil
war. That is why can't keep from
writing it up. There was time in
the history of the Third District when
whiskey was bought and sold in every
nook and corner in the upper end of
this county. Then was the time we
had the country full of drunkards and
the courts full of criminals, but since
that day whiskey has vanished from
out of the reach of our young lads and
they have now joined the churches and
are leading christian lives that speak
highly for our young men, and the
fathers of the country
There was a young man killed in the
mines by being run over by u motor
Jar and was mangled in horrible
manner. He was nephew of lobe
ripton, of Whitwell, and his body
will be embalmed by Chattanooga
and the body shipped to
Oklahoma to his mother for burial.
| received letter from Montlake as
o the condition of affairs up there
Turing the holidays They had an all
round pitched battle with pistols and
.nives, in which several got cut or
tabled, or were shot at in the mixup.
The sheriff of Chattanooga came out
O the lake and carried about half of