Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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VOL XLIIY,.3 NEWBERRY.S C. tVIKDX. JXNAl 9. XTKTIEAWEK 15AYA 1SPENSARY COIITTEE ASKS MORE POWER WHY THE GOMMITTEE HAS HAD ONLY PARTIAL SUCCESS. The Committee not Invested with Sufficient Power to Compel the Attendanee of Witnesses and Force them to Testif. Columbia, January 4.-The pres ent session of the dispEnsary in vestigation has been giveh up. The committee has not sufficient power to carry out. its important work of inquty. Such has been appreciated as being the case a4l along, but yes terday and today it became so pain fully evident that the committee de cided to suspend operations until they can get the desired power. Senator Christensen, near the close of today's meeting, said: "We have sunfmoned witnesses to appear here, and they have not. appeared. They have testimony of the utmost importance, and we have no .power to compel them to attend and testi 1y. Under the concurrent resolu tion under which we are working -Section 5 says, 'That nothing here in ,:ontained shall. be construed to -deny the said committee the power to apply at.any time to the general -assembly for such other power and authority as the circumstances ars ing during. this investigation .may seem to require.' I therfore. move that this ses sion be adjou.rued .and that we ask the legislature fbr power to compel the witniesseg to: testify." Mr. Lyon offered to amend this tesblutio by adding.,'that we- ask the Jegislature for such instruction as may seem proper; - and other -powers as. seem neCessary.' Mr. 'hristensen accepted the - amend ,inen a the resoltion was passed.. Ab6t twenty witnesses had been -sumnioned by the committee to ap -pear.at the present session. Some; of thein w.ere unavoidably detained by sicknesf or service on grand ju A ries, but in~sdme of the cases it was only too evident that they did not care to face the committee, *and so -simply ignored the summons. It was useless to go on without these important witn.dsses, and -use ~less. under the circunistances,. to .try to force themi in. At the first day .i the new assembly, next Tuesday, a bill will be presented asking fore the desired power. ' The only work done this morn ing of any importance was the hear-f ing given to Mr. L. WV. Boykin, former inspector. Mr. Boykin wanted to answer charges that had been made against him by C. D. Smith. the Sumter dispenser, in which Mr. Smith said that Mr. Bovkin had tried to influence him to push certain brands of liquor. Mr. Bovkin said. through his coun sel, that he was not aware of the testimony offered by Mr. Smith at the time so has not replied until now. Mr. Boykin said:. "Mr. Smith -said that I representedI three liquor companies giving their names; I.I want to offer the affidavits from the Acme Brewing company, of Macon, the Maryland Rye Whiskey Man -ufacturers, of Baltimore, and the Garrett Wine company, of Norfolk. These were sworn to, respectively, by A. Bloch, for the Acme Brewing company ; WV. A. Boykin, for the Baltimore firm, and C. B. Cole, of the wvine company. Mr. Boykin then offered another affidavit from a gentleman who had accompanied him when he called on Mr. Smith to ask about the charges. The affidavit was from lames Can tv, now an invalid, and who could not appear in person. The follow that .\r. Boykin had gone to Sum ter in company with Mr. Canty, after the investigation in that place. "Have vou done this through ig norance or through malice?" asked Mr. Boykin, referring to the tes timonv Mr. Smith had offered at the investigation prejudicial to Mr. Bovkin. Mr. Bovkin followed this question, according to affidavit. by asking: "Did you think I represent ed any whiskey houses while I was inspector ?" Mr. Smith replied that he did not. "Then I want a written statement saying so." This statemeit Mr. Smith would not give, saying that he had made his statement already and could not go back on,it. To a threat that Mr. Boykin would go before the com mittee and tell them Mr. Smith re Y' I can't help it." >#r'. Boykin produced an affidavit from Mr. G. H. Charles, -Who was clerk of the board of directors, giv ing dates when he was appointed inspector, and when he resigned; April 4, 1889, and -December i, ioi, respectively. He further showed: affidavits t6 ~ 'show that though he. had represented whis key houses, it was not during his incumbency as inspector. "The only reason that I know why Mr. Smith should have told these things," said Mr. Boykin, "is that he was a clerk in the Sumter dispensary when L. was elected- to the board. After I was elected he persecuted me with letters asking to be appointed an inspector. I saidI didn'f know Mr. Taturn tvell enoug.to .ask hin to .do. it., ard if I did thgre were o.ther men who had a keati- claim on me than he had. That's the -qnly reason I know." ..Nr. Bellinger asked in behalf of his friend. Mr. Gunter, who is very ill, that Mr. MCGowan, who was to have~ been. a- witness here, should appear at son'time known to him; so he could examine him. It was promised that whenever he should be called iustice would be done Mr. Gunteri -The only other interesting matter was the examination of Iuspector R. WV Nichols. 'Mr. Nichols was the inspector who visited the Beau fort dispensary and found it in a deplorable condition. Senator Chris tensen examined the inspector as f6lows: ..*~, Q. Hoiv lonig hive you been an inspector? ''A.; -.Nearly two years.. Q. You checked the accounts of Mr. T. F. Walsh; of'Beaufort ? A. Yes, sir. Q. State the circumstances. A. I had asked M\'r. Walsh to be present when I called to look over his accounts. I wanted to see them ten. He said that he was in ill health and run dlown. and wanted me to defer the examination until the next afternoon. I told him if it would accommodate him I would wait, but T wanted to check up and go on. Then he told me that he was $2,ooo short in his accounts. and he almost broke down. I told him to meet me the next morning and I would see what could be done. Q.. Wasn't it after you told him you would have to examine the stock? How do you know that the boxes are full in such cases ? A. We take a man's word for it, if the seals are unbroken. The reason for the recent instructions was that empty cases were found in Charleston and Fort Motte. Yes. e seemed a good deal disturbed. and he agreed to meet me the next rorning. I found that there wvas bout $2,400 due the state. 0. What was the nature of the unerstad(ing- that you had with Mr. WValsh ? \. T wen1t to Por.t R'oval and YemPaSee,( and( his son wired(ro avanhi:f that he wouA. be over lefcit good. He came the next af tvrnoon and gave me a New York exchangre for the amount. The father wanted to resign immediate ly. but. as it was near the end ot the month. it was just as well for I him to stav. They wanted to avoid plublicity, in the matter. The son said he didn't know how, it was that his father got short. COLLEGE SEMI-CEMTENTIAL. Committee - on Arrangements Gives Out Program The general committee on mak ing arrangements for the semi-cen tennial for Newberry college, met on Friday to hear the report of the special committee which was ap pointed at a previous meeting to submit plans of organization and the programme. The following constitute the work of the committee as handed to us by the secretary Mr. J.. B. Hun t ter:' The committee met ifi Dr. 0. B. t Mayer's office. Those present were: Maver; Scherer. Wheeler, - Sligh, Bowers, Hunter, Cannon, Powell, Kicklighter, Derrick and Setzler. The meeting was called to order by the chairman, 0. B. Mayer. J. B.- Hunter was appointed secretary) pro tem. Minutes of last meeting were read and approved. The re port of the executive committee was then considered and adopted after amendments. The -report as amended is as follows:. Programme. for - commencement week. Monday, 10 a. m.-Welcome and 'responsive 'reetings from the col leges. Monday. 8 p. m.--Or atorical contest. - Tuesday. 10 a. m.-Alumni cel ebration. Tuesday, 8. p. m.-Celebration 'of literarf societies. Wednesday, 1o a m.-Com- 1 mencement exercises. Wednesday, 8 p. m.-Banquet to be arranged for. by the committee on ibano netttsubject to appitoval by I The following committees' were appointed: Finance-O. B. Mayer , WV. K.'1 Sligh, A. T. Brown, 0. Klettner and A. G.' Wise. Publication and Publicity-E. B. Setzler, A. J. Bowers, S. L. Powell, S H. Wallace, Rteception and entertaiiment-0. B. Cannon, 0. L. Schumpert, G. B. Cromer, E. A. Carlisle, A. C. Jones, 0. McR. Holmes, J. S. WVheeler, W. H. Hunt and Z. F. Wright. Banqiuet-S. J. Derrick. G. S. lI Mower. G. B. Cromer, Kicklighter I and T. M. Kinard. I Inivitation-J. A. Sligh. J. A. B. Scherer and TF. B. Hunter.1 Class Reumion-J. B. Hunter, J. ~ S. WVheeler and . D. Kinard. Decided that all speakers were to C b)e chosen undler the supervision S andl with the approval of executive C committee. The executive corn mittee were authorized to give Dr. Scherer such help as he may need in carrying out the duties required f of him in making arrangements for a the semi-centennial. The chairman was instructed to confer with the town council, and I request them to appoint a commit- c tee of three to act as advisory members of the committee. t The finance committee wvas char~-t ged with the duty of electing a treasurer and approving all bills. The secretary was instructed toq give the action of the committee to the pr1ess at Dr. 0. 1B. Mayer's offce Tucs-K day. Fbruar 13t. at 7 :30 o'clock p. mn., at wxhichi time e'achi coimmit DISPENSARY BOARD WAS NOT EXAMINE [HE COMMITTEE FOR SOME REASOP IS FIGHTING FOR TIME. day Want Additionai Power--At th( Meeting Yesterday All of the Mem bers of the Board were Preseut. Mr. Towill's Declaration. [he State, 4th. The dispens*y investigating :ommission yesterday examined bul )ne witness-R. B. Lewis, dispen ;er at Ridgeway. Senator Chris :ensen had the marshal to see il he witnesses summoned had arriv A and it was found that all of the Spartanburg witnesses were noi )resent, so it was deemed advisabl( o defer the examination of Capt. . R. Fant of that city until this norrang. Mr. Christensen ran briefly over he correspondence picked up ir lispensaries in Greenville and sta ed that the dispensers in that city ad received the usual amount ol orrespondence, such as that show A up in other counties. In addi :ion to this the committee found etters asking for financial suppori or the Vidette, a weekly paper. a ample of these letters being print d elsewhere. The one witness examined told a tory of a dispenser whose scintil ating genius played the Richland listillerv -to a standstill. R. B. ewis testified that on the T5th oi iovember, 1904, he was elected lispenser at Ridgeway. He took :harge on the ist of December fol owing. Between the time of his Jlection and the time he took charge is predecessor. Hollis. had order d and received a stock of $8.ooc )r $10,000. The dispensary never :arried a stock of over $2.ooo. He iad never placed an order for more han SI.400 worth of liquor at one ime. When Lewvis took charge of the lispensary he found that all oi hese goods had been received in a ~ortnight-invoicedl at over $8,ooo. kll of the shipping cases-had beer pened and the former dispense: ia'd removed therefrom one or twc xtra bottles, the umber sent tc he* dispensers personally in ship nents of Peaceful Valley. Old Tomr rin' and Old Rabbit. This was Lbout. the time that . the Richland istillery was paying 25 cents each or all empty cases returned. A ~reat many of the cases were re urned by the former dispenser. Lewis got on the train at once nd reported Hollis' shrewd trick to he commissioner. All that could >e (lone was to return the liquor. -e sent back all of the large ship nent-minus the bottles which lollis had taken out as per instruc ions. and even these did not pre -ent the stock remaining from hecking up properly, for the cheme was to put 50 bottles in a ase when 48 were order ed and the wo extra were to go to the dispen er for his personal use. Commissioner Tatum had ex laed to him that the authorities t *the state dispensary did not nowv that H-ollis would go out of tis office and that it was not an nusual matter to ship $8,000 worth f liquor to one disp)ensary in 15 avs. He admitted. however, that was a matter sufficient to attract e attention of the authorities at ie state dispensary, as he had nev r heard of the Ridgeway dispen ary receiving that amount of li or before or since. Hollis is still rotndl Ridgeway and has not been nortedl hv the grand juryv. which Said1 to l)e waitinig on the dispen ar1 inestigatingZ co4mmit tee to fmh ;h its work. uation. Mr. Christensen read an affidavit from Jas. T. Wiliams, the former mayor. charging that the beer dispensaries there are and have been nuisances. During his term of office there had been one homicide and numerous assaults of a serious nature in these places. The beer dispensaries were regular loafing places for rowdies. Chief Becknell of Greenville gave an affidavit corroborating Mr. Wil liams' statement. The police have no jurisdiction around these places except to abate nuisances. S. W. Richardson's place had given the most trouble. It had been kept open in disregard of dispensary regulations. Senator Christensen presented an affidavit from Dispenser Batson of Greenville, charging that C. 0. Smith. chairman of the Spartan burg county board, had been intro duced to him by R. Y. Hellams, chairman of the Greenville county board, and that Smith had presen ted to him the merits of Congress Hall liquor. Dispenser M. S. Scruggs had given a similar affidavit in which he stated - that when Smith ap proached him in behalf of the Con gress Hall whiskey, they had some hot words. The investigation will be resum ed this morning at 10:30-. Carolina Tea Tables. Dr. B. T. Galloway, chief .of the bureau of plant industry, gave me a Christmas present yesterday. It is a little bOx of tablets. They are about the size of gun wads and look something like the ordinary "frog in your throat" which simple mind ed people put into.their mouths.vith the idea that it will cure hoarseness or. tickling in the throat. But these tablets are neither gun wads or "frogs in your throat." They are tea tablets, and they come from the only tea producing state in the Union. which is South Carolina. These are the only tea tablets ever madle, these made at the Pinehurst tea farms in Summerville, S. C. It is a newv invention under the sun, and it enables one to carry around in very small packages the material for making gallons of the very best tea. T can take one of my little tea "frogs in your throat.''drop it into a cup of hot water and in exactly four seconds have a delicious cup of tea, and South Carolina tea at that. There are 20 .cQf these tablets in a box, good for 20 cups of tea, the price of the box is 10 cents. A per son can go fishing, take one of these boxes in his vest pocket, make a fire heat \vater in a tin cup or a camp kettle and make tea enough for a party of 20. The American army. [ believe does not dIrink tea to any great extent. Coffee with the sol diers is the favorite drink, as it is with so many American people who are not in th'e army ; but tea is good d (rink and is more pop)ular today than it used to be. D)r. Galloway thinks that this new invention of the tea table, allowing tea to be carried isuch a convenient and compact form. wvill induce the army to use it more instead of coffee. IThe annual report of bureau of! lant industrv will be issued in bout two weeks, and in that, wvhile here is only a short chapter on tea ulture, the farm at Summerville s reported as progressinn with en ouraging results. There is- only ne other tea farm in the country. That is in Texas, at Pierce, Whor on county. This is not bearing y:t, wwever.~andl South Carolina still :njoys the (distinction of b)eing the oly tea producing state. The bureau f plant indlustry cooperates with D r. Shepardl. the owvner of the Pine mrst tea farm1. and dutring~ the gath ring~ seas5on had Dr. Rodd(e IH. jI'ne of the 1hnrelaul stationedC( I n rily interested in the tea plant, has been much interested in this be cause he desires the commercial suc cess of the tea growing industry. Tfiere's no use for him or any of the others to devote so much attention to the sudy of the plant unless some demonstrates that it will be com mercially valuable to the country. And this tea tablet is distinctively, an example of American comercial methods. It is what one might call a typical American-stunt. The Chi. nese wil likely go on 2,000 years making tea, and selling it, like they did before America was discovered. News From Excelsior. -Excelsior, January 4.-Christ mas passed off quietly in this sec tion. The weather for Christmas was all that could have been de sired. Miss Lora Nates is spending two weeks with her sister at Granite ville. Sunday was a wet, disagreeable day, snow, sleet and rain fell dur ing a portion of the day. Prof. J. S. Wheeler spent Thurs day in Columbia on business. Miss Dosia Epps, of Newberry, spent a few of the holidays witli Miss Maggie Stone. Mrs. Caroline Cook is visiting her daughters near Prosperity. Mr. and Mrs. Ray Watts,- of Newberry, spent Christmas day, with his mother's family near here. Mrs. P. S. Cook and. children have returned to their honie in Co lumbia, after spending s.ome time with' Mrs. J. C. Cook's family., Now is the time to make -good resolutions for the new year and then stick to them. . Some of the public roads are in a bad condition and some. have not been. worked in a good long while. Through the kindness of Prof. J. S. Wheeler' we attended service at Mt. Tabor church on last Sun day for the first time in several years. Mrs. J. C: Cook and Mrs. H. T. Kinard are spending a few days with Mrs. G. B. Dominick's fami lv near Greenwood. Mr. A. H. Miller and daughter, Miss Mattie, Joseph Hartman and wife, and Mrs. J. M. Wheeler, of Prosperity, . spent Tuesday withi Prof. J. S. Wheeler's family. Our school opened again- on Monday morning after enjoying the holidays. Mr. and Mrs. J. WV. Hartman have been spending a few days wvith Mr. WV. M. Werts' family at Mountville. S. C. Mr. John B. Cook and 'family, of Newberry. have moved back to his farm, here. Miss Lucy Wheeler, who is teach ing school near Jalapa, spent the holidays at her home here. Mr. L. C. Singley and family, of Garys Lane. have been visiting rel atives in this section. Miss Julia Shealv, of Little Mountain, has been visiting Miss Carrie Cook. Miss Alva Waters, of Jalapa, visited Mr. J. C. Singley's family during the holidays. Mr. Joseph Matthews, of near Ninety Six, visited relatives in this section during the -holidays. Mr. Arthur Lee Wheeler spent a few of the holidays with relatives in Newherrv. Miss Lucy Lake. of Peak spent the holidays with Mr. J. H. Domi nick's family. Miss Pet Dominick accompanied her home to spend a few days. Misses Janie Kinard, of Lees ville. and Bettie Werts, of Saluda, are v'isitingZ Mr. and Mrs. H. T. Kinard. K. Si I ( )i LI D b on the sid1eboard?.