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Cpppt, VOL. XLII. NO. 103 NEWBERRY. S. C.. TUESDAY AUGUST 15, 1905. TWICE A WEEK. $1.50 YEAR DISPENSARY AFFAIRS IINDER A HEAYY FIRE INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE ADJOURNED FRIDAY. Lie Was Passed Frequently on Clos ing Day-Sensational Testimony of Present County Chairman. The first public session of the dis pensary investigating committee in Spartanburg a-ijourned Fri. ae nigh-. Every one connected with the i.ves tigation was tred -nd worn out and the broken th' :d i,ill be taken up in Columbia ht-r on. The follo? g -c" tme r, the anal my's testimony is from the Ncws and Conrier: A number of addi:tional wi neses were summoned. but it was fotind un ncccary ro call chem and Messrs. Ch-:.ztensen and Lyon ag':e that time would probat."y be gained by 1%."d-ng the rcm ning w-nesses :c"-:.n to a stand. The day was largely devoted to ex planations and privileged statements from those who had been assailed by the evidence and there was every .disposition to -allow them to make statements. Under this head Mr. Charles O. Smith. Arch Cathcart. Disper.sers Ferguson and McGarty and Mr. Avant, who was a member of the board, made Their explanations. The dispensers who took the stand all admitted that they placed in stock the over supply of bottles that were sent out by the Mallard Distilling company. the Richland Distilling company and Blutvhenthal & Bickert, all pnt the proceeds in the cash draw as other sales. Dispenser Ferguson's position was that as these goods were shipped to them by the stalte dispen sary that they belonged to the dis pensers and he could -ot see where it da! any wrong-d^:ng in selling tihesc extra complimetary bottles and taking the proceeds. where cases were -hipped out containing these extra bottles by the State dispenser. Touching Compliments. Messrs. Lyon and Oh;ristensen pre sented a number of letters taken from Mr. Ferguson's dispensary in which he was notified that various whole sale houses had sent him complimen tarv liquors. The cub-committee also presented a letter addressed to Mr. Fergnren in which Mr. L. W. Boykin, a member of the State board oi con trok. wrote tihat he could now get some other X corn and X rye than the Richland stuff. and that he -had been trying for a long time to get the board to purchase some other one X corn and rye for you fellows :hat did nort want the Richland stuff. but hav.e only succeeded yesterday. T: most interesting witness to day w,.as Mr. Charles 0. Smith. who was chairman of the bolard of controT. whiich has been char;ged with so much wrorne-doing here. H! e a rather young lo king man. dresses wvell. has a very flushed face. talks i-n'telligently and is altogether quite oright. H e denied absolutely and unequivo cally thatc he had ever accepted or re ceivedl one dollar for 'his vote in con necton with any dispensary election. and irmis'ts tihat it was all a pack of lies abo ut his ever having received any money for anyv dispensary elec tionl. Mr. Evyon asked him if he did no't go to Mr. Wall's horne and there of fer him S3oo if he (Waill would vote for The election as a beer dlispenser. Mr. Emenh admittedl that this was cor-1 rect a ' then went on to say that the had mrade :he iffer simply ti see if he ".o'ld ':ake it, and what the other fello-.. were doin. and he had no idea of p.aying him any money. Ugly Scenes. - There were several ugly- scenes in the --,.. hus andi on two occasionsI t he lie was passed to and from the wi:. :ss stand. During the morning session Mr. Morris told M1r. Smi.th that he was a li.ar with reference to a certain state ment that Mr. Smith had made about Morris's relations with a woman. Turning on Morris, Mr. Smith in sisted that Morris was doing the ly ing and that if he did not like w4hat he was saying that he would see him outside and settle it, and he seemed anxious to ge-t busy without further delay. At the afternoon sess=ion, Mr. Ship pey told Mr. Ferguson that he was an infamous liar, if he denied telling him he had placed complimentary case goods on his shelves and sold it. During dinner recess Mr. Landrum. the present chairman of the board of control, and Mr. Jesse Mahaffey. who does not mind boasting of his drink ing capacity. came near having a hitch, but fortuna1ely the day passed without any encounter. although. there seemed to be consi=derable prepara tion for such a thing. One of the most interest witnesses of the whole day, and in fact, of the whole session, was Mr. B. G. Lan drum, who has recently been elected chairman of the county board of con trol. He was on the stand for just about t. minutes before dinner recess and in that time he said he thought that his commission had been deliber ately held up after his appointment, so that certain deals could be made in connection with the Morris-Bisih,op dispensary and that he had been ab solutely ignored in dispensary af fairs. That he had written to Chair man Evans upon important dispen sary matters, and had never received a reply from him, that he had never been supplied witdh a statement of the goods shipped to -the county dispen sary as has been .the custom, and what is necessary to secure a perfect check on the local dispensaries and he thought the county boards a hum bug anyway. Avant's Admissions. At the afternoon session Mr. Avant, who is a member of tihe present board of control, stated that Mr. Landrum had made a proposition for a division of the dispensaries in Spartanburg, and that each of the three members elected his own friend to each of the di:pensaries as may he assigned to him. This proposition, he said. h.e reject ed. Mr. Avant admitted that he had :done wrong in signing certiticates and settle'ment blanks. but said that he thought that it was all right as it seemed to have been the custom to :do so. Promised Money. Mr. Perry Wall. who is a former member of t'he board, and refused to ppear before the committee. is here. This is where the committee hould ave exercised its authority and fore ed Mr. \\Yall to attend, but fortunate ly the committee had an affidavit signed b~y Messrs. Lyon and Chris ensen. in which Mr. Wall stated that Mr. Smitlhi had offered him $500 if he would vote for 'Thackston. He stated: hat about dispensary elections times e had money offered to him and in timations made that if he would vote for certain people he could get money, nd that tupon one occasion Mr. Mc Abee offered him S150 to vote for cer ain candidate. He stated that he had ever received any money from any. mne on account of any election con-I ected with dh.e dispensary. Mr. Gill Barnett. another obdurate xiness refused to appear before the c: mmit:ee and a voluminous affidavit xas presenftedi from him. Beer D)ispenser Riebling is qut'ite an .-igina! character. lie has been one ,the beer dispensers here for a zreat many years. and prior 'to that. xas -liquor dealer. H-e is a German an,. .ais a very decided German ac ent. Mr. icGarty testified that he wrote letters to several whiskey houses asking Th.em to make contributions for the campaign fund for the dis pensary against prohibition. and in these letters Mr. McGarty wrote that the money was to be used for general campaign purposes and he did not specify it was to used in connection with any newspaper. He stated that Lanahan & Son wrote him that they had contributed to t1h.e fund Through Columbia, presumably to Mr. Huse man, who went there to make a co! lection. During one of the lulls in the testi mony Mr. Carruth, who has had con siderable experience in this section distilling, was put on the stand. One of the interested auditors dur ing the entire hearing has been Mr. Joe Huseman. who runs a beer dis pensary here and who has been charg ed with being the intermediary in giv ing Toland's money to Smith. The charge has been reiterated an.d stiii luseman has said notth-ing and unlike many others has not asked to be 'heard. He may be heard at the Columbia session. A Sad Spectacle. Dispenser Ferguson. who wears his Confederate cross of honor on the lapel of his coat, seemed to be utterly unable to see glaring unbusinesslike methods in the thandling of accounts. The sub-committee on the local dis pensaries thinks it has shown quite enough in Spartanburg and in this connection it is to be noted that Chairman Hay was here with Messrs. I Lyon and Ohristensen and rendered every possible co-operation and his support was of material assistance. It is to be remembered thac this committee is not prosecuting any one, but is simply to show the conditions that exist. It is evident that they have shown enough for some one to get busy here, if such is intended. It was reported 1h,ere -tonight that prosecutions would be started at once against the dispensers for selling li quor on their own account and that such sales are nothing more nor less Than blind tigering. The committee feels that it is not to prosecute any one, but if the so licitor wants any of its evidence it will be readily supplied. It is likely that the committee will meet in Columbia in about ten days' time. Thursday's Testimony. Thursday's testimony is tihus sum med up by Col. August Kohn, in the News and Courier. The evidence tollay before the dis p)ensary investigating committee w~as cumulative and damaging. Day by day the sub-committee is reiterating the manner in which dispensaries are run in Spartanburg, and the inference is that this is a type. There are some in far better condition, and again t4aere are some as b)ad The Spar tanburg testimony is to show to the peo ple of the state the abundant pos sibilities of the system. WVhat was done here until the committee got to twisting the lid can be done eles whet;her it is or not. Other dispen errs received extra liquor. In hun<dreds if cases they received com plimentary liquor, and hiow few di& not put the stuff in stock, sell and pocket 'the proceeds. is yet to be heard. The system permitted it, just as did many other things that the peo ple are just fmnding out. Witness af ter witness is testifying to the pick ings of local dispensers in extra bot tIes. samples. presents and the like. The changing of labels is more ser: ous T chiy the evidence empinasized and hammered down a series of al readyv dev eloped matters. First of all. M\r. Tiland. a former dilpen)r1c. with apparent reticence imtt can d r. t,l d of his actunal payment if $275 and a gold w'atch to secure a dispensary job. Toland testified that, as instructed, he gave the mon e to D;sner.cer T-Tseman. who wa ,to act as the termediarv. He gav:e -the money to Kuseman to give to Smith. who was chairman of t e county board. as ^.dvised, and to this he stuck. He had given an affidavit that he had rot given Smith any mon ey for an office, and hl urged that this was tec4..nically correct. as the mon ey had been given to Huseman to give Smith and Smith did get it from Husem'an. The watch was a direct gift. Second: Toland said that he bid as high as $450 for a beer dispensary, but he did not get the position for his candidate. Third: Mr. D. M. Miles developed into an unexpected witness. He went on th;e stand to clear his record, which is entirely good, and to refute certain charges about his using liquor in an election. It was while on the stand he threw some sidelight on the dispensary management of ten years ago. For instance he said that he voluntarily quit the board of control, to which he had been twice unani- 1 mously elected, because the general impression was that it was not an honest place, and for fear that some people might suspect him of dishon esty he tfhought it best to quit. He went on to say: I saw things I could not afford to say anything about -because I could not say wheth er they were so or not. Then he went on to say that he caw things he sup posed were not right, but did not know it. He was satisfied there were t:en some honest as well as some dis honest people about the dispensary. When pressed for specific information 1 he would always fall back, and say that he was prepared. to answer any legal question, but he would not volunteer any evidence for fear of 1 doing some one a possible injury. 1 He went on to say that if the dis- 1 pensary had been run by the same kind of men as it was in his day. it would not be in the trouble it now was 1 Of one thing Mr. Miles was positive. and tlhat he willingly testified, and < that was that some one in the dispcrn- t sary in his day and time supplied liquor to blind tigers and he doubted very much if the money for it ever went to the state. He thought that the board was all right, but he said t'hat in his day and time on the board the outside influences were bad, and that orders were worked for by outsiders, but he was free to say that things were not to his liking in the dispensary itself, and t-hat he : quit and came home to be elected county supervisor, which office he now holds. Third. There was another scene between Messrs. Christrensen and Lyon and Mr. Blease. In connection with Mr. Toland's testimony. it was developed that Mr. Toland had swornK that Mr. Blease. a member oi the in res.igating committee. hiadl told 'him that the committee wvas just going around smoothing matters over and up)holdling the dispensary law. That Mr. Blease had asked him why in the dickens he (Toland) had not gone off and had nothing to sayj about the matter. That he had told Toland that he was not obliged to testify, and that the general tendency of the investigating committee was to smoot4h matters over and uphold the dispensary. Mr. Blease reiterated that he had never done anything to interfere with the work of the committee, that he is r doing all he can to help it along and that he has never offered advice or money ro impede the work of the committee. He asked t.he people whether the wv~ould believe Mr. To-r land or hi;mself tn the issue involved. ! Fl urth. Messrs. Christensen and Lyon o f the sub-committee. unequiv' 'cally- ann 'unced that they in tended :opreent any and everything they conld find that would throw anyt light on the dispensary situation int the state. c Fifth. The g-eneral committee afterC a conference, regarding a protest from Mr. Sims. decided that the investigation was to be wide open, that information and facts were want ed and that the orthodox rules of :estimonv were not to be enforced. Sixtfi. That most of the tardy wit aesses have appeared before the com atittee. and only one witness refuses :o answer the summons of the com ittee. The committee has an affi lavit from him. Seventh. Jesse Mahaffey, the mem >er of the house , who is quoted as laving said that Herbert H. Evans rave him all the whiskey he wanted nd stuffed $20 bills in his pockets xhi.le he (Evans) was a candidate for -e-election on the board. ucterly de iied any -such and all such charges. He insisted that Mr. Evans was a enerous and open- h;earted, but he 1as never given him whiskey nor had ie ever given him any money in one vay or another, and the report must iave statred from a joke. because he nade no such statments seriously. Eighth. That Jeff Duawoody is :redited with telling Toland that he vas paid $ioo for writing a letter to &r. H. H. Evans for one of the repre entatives of Bluthenthal and Bickart. Ninth. That members of the county >oard of control made a habit of bor -owing money from dispensers and >f not returning the money. Tenth. That the members of the )oard of control would get all the ree liquor they wanted, and tihat they ad a practice of suggesting that they vould like certain presents of get ing them in the end from a "jinnie" o a shot gun. Eleventh. That one of the Lan ord family held the positions of bot le buyer and a drayage manager of he dispensary at one and the same ime. Twelftfh That Mr. Cathcart was Mother of the Blackwood type of ioosters for the county boards, in hat he was induced to file his appli :ation simply to force the market rice of jobs up. Thirteenth. That two clerks in one >f the dispensaries here kept tab and ound that the chief dispenser con timed more than $30 worth of li mor a month. Fourteenth. That one of the clerks ehen he left the dispensary was pre ented with champagne as an evidence f good will. Fifteenth. That a tip seems to tave gostten inere and that in conse tence the dispensers made way with uch papers as they did not want to ~et into the hands of the investiga ing committee. Sixteenth. That Mr. Mr. Huseman vent to Columbia with a letter of au horitv, a sort of credci.:ial signed by lie dispensers here, wihich he was to te in his canvass for funds for the ght against prohibition in. this coun; y. and :o us f or the J urnal cam Seventeenth. That the charge that ;tpervis. r Miles used dispensary li nor samples, in his campaign. fell athier flat. Eightee'nth. *That beer was used ere for election purposes and that general bill was sent H. H. Evans or the beer because there wvas an in imation that the beer wvould be paid r. Chairman of County Board. Following is the sensational testi aony of Mr. B. G. Landrum, who was ecently elected chairman of the ounty board of control of Spartan urg: Examination by Lyon: Q. Relate to the committee those aatters T asked vou about this morn ig without my questioning you AX. In the first place, I want to 'ake mys~elf straight in regard to art Floyd about my commission.I mndi(. andl ought to have told yes erday. that Mr. Floyd was not at Al ,blame about my not getting my ommission. That as soon as Mr. am and I stnnose some ofthe other