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DR. CROMER REJOINS. He Cites South Carolina Supreme Court As To Whiskey. Dr. Geo. B. Cromer has sent the following open letter to Unite( States Senator B. R. Tillman: The Hon. B. R. Tillman.-Deai Sir: It was not to be expected tha: you would adopc my view of the principles underlying the dispensar) law, but I desire to assure you that I appreciate the spirit of your letter publisl.ed in the papers of this morn ing. A final word in reply is requirec by one or two passages in your let ter. While my own conduct is of small moment and I have no desire to bring my personality into the dis cussion, let me assure you. in pass ing, that my moral support has been given to the enforcement of the dis pensary law. When Governor Hey ward expressed a determination tc enforce the law in Charleston I wrote him a letter of warm commen dation; not because I was in sympa thy with the dispensary law, but be cause I am opposed to lawlessnes5 and in favor of .fostering respect for duly constituted authority. But I think you miss both the spirit and the letter of Pope's well known couplet He did not say: "About forms of law ler fools con test, That law which is best administer ed is best." He was not speaking of legislative enactments, but of governments and creeds as they effect human welfare, and he said: "For forms of government let fools contest, Whate'er is best administered is best." If there is inherent vice in the law itself, efficient administration of the law cannot cure it. Referring to the decision of the supreme court, which you say I "quote witin great unction," you say: "The prohibitionists in general and you, my dear doctor, are thoroughly imbued with the belief that liquor drinking is dangerous to the morals, good order, health and safety of the people," etc. I am nor a fanatic on the subject, though you put me in a class with the "unco guid and rigid righteous." who think it is a sin to drink liquor. As you say that you have not that decision before you, I take the liberty of supplying a full quotation in order that it may be seen that I have argued the matter, not as a fanatic, but from the point of view of the supreme court. You will recall t'hat at the Novem ber term, 1893, in 1894 the supreme court decided that the dispensary law' was unconstitutional, Mr. Justice Mc Gowan concurring with Mr. Chief Justice McIver in the decision, and Dr. Justice Pope dissenting. The same year, 1894, Mr. Justice Gary having succeeded Mr. Justice Mc. Gowan on the supreme bench, the court decided that t'he lawv was un constitutional, Mr. Justice Pope and Mr. Justice Gary concurring, and Mr. Chief Justice McIver dissenting. I am friank enough to say that if I were hunting something that I could "quote with unction." I could find it in the dissenting opinion. The following paragi..ph, found in State vs. Aiken, 42 S. C., page 231, contains rhe groundwork of the de cision upholding the constitutionality of the law: "Before proceeding to a considera tion of the specific objections urged against the constitutionality of tche Act (of 1893) we desire to state at the outset that in our opinion the fol lowing propositions embody the prin ciples governing this case: "1st. That liquor, in its nature, is dangerous to the morals, good order, h-ealth and safety oi the people, and is not to be placed on the same foot ing with the ordinary commodities of life. suc'h as corn, wheat. cotton, to' bacco, potatoes. etc. "2nd. That the state, under its po lice power, can itself assume entire control and management of those subjects. suc'h is liquor, that are dan gerous to the peace. good order, healtih, morals and welfare of the peo pie. even when trade is one of the in cidents of such entire control and management on the part of the s:ate. "3,rd. That the Act of 1893 is t police measure. We are frank 'to say that if we are wrong as to either of these propositions. the act should he declared unconstitutional. \Ve will now cite authorities to sustain these propositions. Note. then, that the language in xwhich you define the attitude of the prohibitionists is exactly the Ian guage in which the supreme court defines the attitude of the law on the subject. That decision fixes the point of view from which the state is bound to regard the question: and from that point of view the stale may take control of the traffic to police it, but not to profit by it. And if the view of Hugh Farley, chiv alrous spirit, and others who were op posed to the profit feature had been adopted. the result might have been different. I admit that it is wise. to "hobble the devil." whom you are poweriess effectually to chain: but having hobbled t'he devil, I protest that it is not right to make him yoke fellow with the spirit of progress in our schoo'ls and open the way for our children to embrace him as an angel of light. Returning to my 'historical parallel, I am not inclined to press the les sons of the prohibition vote of 1892 unduly. After reminding me that 32, ooo did not vote in that election, which you denominate a "side show," you say that "this is a government of majorities." True but it is a gov ernmen' of majorities that vote, and not of majorities that stay away from tihe polls. At that election, prohibi tion received in this county more than r,ooo votes, a majority of the total vote cast. But when they came to fasten the dispensary upon Newberry county that vote of more than i,ooo was nullified by a petition of 79 free holders in the town of Newberry, 34 of Whom were negroes. The attitude of public sentiment to ards tihe dispensary law in this coun ty has assumed three distinct phases in succession. In its earlier stages the law did not have a fair test. For reasons that need not be enumerated public sentiment was resentful, and the law against illicit traffic in liquor was not en-forced. - But violations of the law became so scandalously open and unrebuked that a revurlsion took place in the sentiment of the com munity, and for years the law 'has been enforced. We have now arriv ed .t the third phase, in which the sentiment of the community seems to be crystallizin in opposition to the Iwhole scheme, owing largely, I t'hink, to the fact that the moral sense of the people is offended by the con stant effort to justify the law by ap' pealing to its revenue feature; but owing also to corruption in The ad. ministrvations of the law. It was not my original purpose and I now matke no attempt to refute statistics or to argue The question in detail. Unless the conditions of two states are exact'ly similiar it is 'hard to arrive at a jus.t conclusion by contrastin.g statistics of crime. But we mig'ht quote statistics until the people are dizzy, and still I believe that a large number of our counties will be satisfied with nothing short of actual experiment after the exawp pie of Marlboro, Greenwood and Cherokee. WVe reach the parting of our wvays at the concluding clause of your let. ter. I quote t'he paragraph: "I will not say that your vision is clouded by fanatcicism, but if it be true that "he who makes two blades of grass grow where only one grew before, is a public benefactor,' then is it rnot e<pally true that he who conceived a scheme by which drunk enness was reduced, temperance en couraged and decency and good order increased, and withal made the de mr'on whisker contribute t the edi: cation of the ignorant masses, need he be ashamed of his work?" I do not admit that the dispensary scheme has reduced drunkenness, en couraged temperance and decency and increased good order. Mark vou, I speak of the effect and not t'he motive. But it has "made the demon whis key contribute to the educa'tion of t'he ignorant masses." And many of the advocates of the scheme vehe mently urge this as a justifying fact. The "ignorant masses" love their schools but do not draw nice moral distinctions. T'he supreme court said: Stifle this vampire that threatens the health and life of the community: but the profit feature gives the "igno rant masses" ground to infer tchat a vampire is in reality the goose that lays tihe golden egg. And I repeat, any restrictive scheme that -tends to make an imoral traffic reputable and popular is a vicious and dangerous scheme. "Do men gather grapes of thorns. or figs of thistles?" Geo. B. Cromer. Newberry. S. C., August 16, 1903. PROSPERITY NEWS. Happenings in Our Sister Town Personal Mention. Miss Estelle Stewart has returned from a very pleasant visit to Colum bia. Miss Louise Wharton accompa nied her and is enjoying her stay in Prosperity. Miss Rosalie McKee, of Salley, is expected today on a visit to Miss Stewart, of t,wo or three weeeks. I am requested to say that Co. G. 13th regiment S. C. V. of C. S. A. service will hold their annual re union at Young's Grove on Aug. 26th. The business meeting will be held in the city 'h!all at 9 a .m. There will be 'cue on that day and speakers will be provided. All are invited. Since the last meeting of the company three of its members have passed on to ans wer the roll call "up yonder" and we know not how many will not be at the next roll call down here. Capc. J. F. Bowles, M. L. Kinard and Jef ferson Taylor have met with their old comrades for the last time. The ranks are thinning rapidly and ere long none of Co. G will be left. All will have joined the great majority. .Mr. P. W. Sheely, of Mt. Olivet, reports that out of eight head of cattle he has lost five within the past three or four days. He says the disease is pronounced Texas fever.. He has one that thinks will recover. Departed this life August uth at her home near St. Lukes church, Mrs. Matilda Beacham in the 74th year of her age. Mrs. Beacham was twice married. She leaves no chil dren. She was laid to rest in St. Luke's cemetery on Saturday. Misses Ellen Werts and Alma Hartman are visiting their uncle, Mr. J. M. Mathis, at Ninety Six. Quite a gay party left our burg last Friday for a thro' the country jaunt to the mountains. We have not heard from them but we presume that the cavalcade is by tihis time winding its way up the dizzy heights of Caes-ar's Head *or some equally pic turesque spoc. The party consisted of S. B. Bowers, Geo. D. Brown, F. R. Fellers, Geo. Harmon, and Zach Taylor, of Orangeburg county. If it has rained there as it has here "the boys" have had anything but a good time. Hart Ko'hn, of Columbia, accompa nied by Paul Fellers paid a flying visit to Prosperity last week. Miss Mattie Pearl McCracken, of Newberry, is visiting Mliss Erin Kohn. Capt. H. -S. Boozer has gone on a visit to his son, Mr. R. T. Boozer. of Lake City. Florida. Our town was filled wit'h a large crowd of persons on Tuesday. Among some of the persons we noticed were Messrs. WV. H. Wallace. W. B. Sea brook, of the Observer: Edward Houseat of the Herald and Messrs. A. C. Jones. E. B. Setzler, M. M. Buford, W. H. Wendt, N. E. Block, L. L. Dominick and my old fr.iend "Chips." I am glad of the fact th'at the meeting refused 'to receive the vitu peration that one of the speakers would 'have heaped on the ministry and we would congratulate every man that was there that raised his voice against such v:ile proceedings. All honor to Revs. Boyd and Der rick for their stand. We want to give a loud hurrah for them. Our peop!le are law abiding and minister respecting we are proud to say. Mr. H. V. Livingston. of Charles ton, has moved his family to our town. Mr. Livingston will open a hardwiare store in t'he new building next to the Prosperity bank. Mr. Livingston occupies the E. B. Luther home on McNeary street. Mr. H. P. Wlicker has moved into his new home on South Main street. Rev. John J. Long will preach in Grace church on the first Sunday in September. T'he congregation has aI vacation at present. The Prosperity Cot:on Oil compa ny has bought the ginning plant of the Prosperity Ginning company and will operate the plant this season. The _Monticello boys came over last week and crossed bats with our boys and the result was i to 4 in favor of Monticello. .Mr. S. S. Birge has returned from WVilliamston much improved. Mr. R. L. Gaston. agent of the Southern, is home from the Colum bia hospital. He was operated on by Dr. Guerry. Mr. K. Baker, of Greenwood. came down Friday to spend a couple days with the madam and the 'chil dren. Miss Sudie May Boulware will have an exhibition at the school on Wed nesday, August 23. There will be a game.of ball i nthe evening. There will be a children's day at Mt. Pilgrim on Friday. September!. All are invited. Come and bring a basket. There will be some addresses appropriate to the occasion. We have heard many snake stories, of joint snakes, horned snakes and all kinds of snakes but the latest is a potato snake-and one of our es teemed citizens of Mt. Pilgrim sec tion has such a one, or at least it is so reported and his snakeship has taken free possession of ot:- friend's potato patch. He says he would not care but he wants some potatoes to roast with his beef and can't get them. Mrs. Martha E. Sease, who was laid to rest on the ioth of August, was 75 years, 7 months and 27 days old. She was married when 15 or 16 years old, and lived in wedlock about 6o years. She was the mother of I1 ch.ildren, all of whom survive her, She was truly a mother in Israel. Don't forget that you must have youd poll tax receipt to vote at the election on the 29th. Mr. Lominick and wife are visit ing Mr. E. G. DeWalt this week. The building boom seems to have struck us. Three new brick buildings are going up at one time. Mrs. A. H. Kohn has returned fron a pleasant visit to Waihalla. -Mr. S. S. Birge has, owing to the damage done by fire to his timber, had to put his mill to work on his mountain lumber at once. He says his loss will be at least $2,000.00., as he cannot turpentine it at all, which will be a clear loss to him. There should be a law for such wanton de struction of property. He will have two mills at work by Thursday. A Matter Of Veracity. Boston Herald. The Rev. John Allen, a Methodist preacher of Farmington, Me.. grand father of Mine. Nordica, was a zeal ous attendant of camp meetings throughout the state. Indeed, his reputation for attending more of these open air meetings than any one else in the country gave him the name of Camp Meeting John. One day as he was walking <down the main street of Farmington the met High Sheriff Luther .Curtis, from Ne Sharon, known throughout the county for his quick wit. As they shook hands the sheriff said. "It gives me great pleasure to grasp tihe hand of an honest man.'' Camp Mleeting John replied, "I wish I could say the same.'' Quick as a flash came the retort. ~You could if vou told such a lie as I did." Strike Of Farmers' Wives. St. Louis Star. 'Ihe worm, has turned. Over in Indiana the farmers' wives of a certain country are on a strike. warm meals a day-regular banquets, in fact-demanded by the men who thresh the farmers' wheat. The threshermen. accustomed to big feasts, I .. e boycotted the county and say the farmers' wheat may rot in the stacks. And there you are. All of which is suggestive to those who -hare sat dowvn to the great spreads during threshing season. For weeks the farmers' wives must plan for the big feed. Everything in the bounteous menu of country cook in.g is provided. Possibly a beef is killed. Chickens are slaughtered by the dozen. 'IThere are six kinds of pie and other things in proportion. All day long the women must stand over ~the hot stove save when washing the dishes. She must be nimble to serve the stuff that can not be "passed." And in this min :i.srn to the lordly appetit es of the threshermen the house wife is per haps laid up in bed for a week or is well started on a spell of ner-vous prostration. The monarch of all he surver is the man with d'e red machine and the traction engine. He tells the house hold when it must get up in the morn ing. And no man dare knock off at eventide except upon his signal. Let the women wait and keep things piping hot! Everything-ohe farm, tihe house, t:he help, even the dog. is under his direction. And much good feeding has made him a delicate critic of cusine. Who can blame the farmers' wives? It is time to call a halt. Let the wheat rot! What with her regular duties of cooking and washing and sewing and tfal dairy and a hundred other things, the farmer's wife has enougihi to do. The threshermen can cook for them selves or eat a cold lunch. Out West they do it differently. The thresher gang carries a cook ing outfit and gets is own meals. No extra demand is made on the randher's wife. Thres'hing is a pic nic an dthe thousewife is a guest at table. Should Indiana women stand firm they may be as independent. If ever a strike is justified this is one of the cases. Girls Should Know. That the home kitchen, with moch er for teacher and a loving, willing daughter for pupil, is the best cook ing school on earth. That "the most excellent thing in woman"--a low voice-can be ac quired only by home practice. That true beauty of face is possi ble only where there is beaucy of soul manifested in a beautiful char acter. That a girl ..erybody likes is not affected, and never whines, but is just her sincere, earnest, helpful self. Maybe a girl gets so excited about a kissing bug 'cause of what is wasted. WOR K BY A Newberry Steam Laundry Co. hiss Hattie ftcver Leavell (B,. .Of WoEl8l1's t'g'Iegg, biellggllg, Va) Pupil of Virgil Piano School of -New York, N. Y. INSTRUMENTAL. MUSIC. Studio over Mower Co.'s Store. School Opens September 1 st, 1905. Special Aftention to Beginners. Just received 2car loads of BuLggies. 1 car load of Wagons. and a lot of up to-date and first class Harness. All to be had at REASONABL.E PRICES at A T. BROWN.