Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

Fhe Peasant Saloon Keeper Ruler of American Cities. (Editorial) The great wave of Temperance which is now sweeping Europe and America has its chief impulse, no doubt, in ethical and religious senti ment. But a new force is operative -the force of an exact knowledge of the evil physical effects of alcohol. It would be impossible to exagger ate the importance of this new ele ment in Temperance R:eform. The stroy of the modern series of scientific experiments with alcohol, begun about twenty-five years ago and still in progress, is given by Dr. Henry Smith Williams in this num ber of "McClure's Magazine." These investigations, largely conducted in Continental Europe, include experi ments on the senses, upon the muscles and upon the different human intel lectual activities, from the simpliest to the most complex. Without ex ception they show that every function of the normal human body is injured by the use of alcohol-even the mod erate use; and that the injury is both serious and permanent. This knowledge is of concern to all the world. But there is in America a particular and special concern over a condition which may be believed to be unparalleled in human history -certainly in modern civilization!: the power of the saloon in American government of cities. The fact is notorious; yet the con dition is not clearly understood. Six ty years ago, with the first flood of European immigration, the character of American city governments charged sudden:y and entirely. A great pro portion of the peasantry who arrived here from the farms of Europe stop ped in our cities. They were isolated from the rest of the population; their one great social centre was the saloon. And out of this social centre came political leaders and the manipulators of their votes. The European peas ant saloon keeper, for more than half a century, has been the ruler of a great proportion of American cities. The case of Tammany Hall, for so many years the real governing body of New York, is most familiar. Its politicians for half a century havi graduated .into public affairs through the common school of the saloon. Its leaders at the present time are perfect examples of the European peasant saloonkeeper type, which 'has come to govern us. The same condition exists to a large extent in nearly ev Sery one of the larger cities in the country. An analysis of the member Sship of the boards of ,aldermen in these cities for the past few decades shows a percentage of saloonkeepers with foreign names which is aston ishing. A governmenlt necessarily takes the character of those conducting it. The business of saloonkeeping, which pro duced the present management of our cities, involves from the conditions which surround it, a disregard for1 both law and proper moral ideal s. Ordinary commercial motives urge the proprietors, as a class, to increase the sale of a commodity which the State everywhere endeavors to re strict; and a savage condition of com petition drives them still further till a great proportion break the pro visions of the law in some way; while a considerable number ally themselves with the most degraded and danger-i ous forms of vice. The government by this class has been exactly what might 'have been expected. A body of men-drawn from an ancestry which 'has never possessed any knowledge or tradi tions of free government; educated in a business whose financial sucess es are made th-rough the disregard of law-are ele'vated to the control of the machinery of law and order in the g'reat cities. Another type of cit izen-men of force and enterprise unsurpassed in the history of the world-by adapting the discoveries of the most inventive century of the, world to the uses of commerce, have massed together in the past half cen tury a chain of great cities upon the face of a half savage continent, and left them to the government of such people as these. The -commercial en terprise of these cities has been the marvel of the world; their 'govern ment has reached a point of moral' degradation and inefficiency scarcely less than Oriental. T'he debauehing of our city life by this kind of government has 'been1 frequently pictured in this magazine. A government by saloonkeepers, and by dealers in flagrant immorality, finds both its power and profit in the establishment of vice by its official position. The progress of such a gov ernment is shown in George Kennan 's description of the former regime in San Francisco, published in "Mc Clure 's M1agazine" of September, 1907. ---- Instead of protecting the public by efotrcina the laws it devoted itself mainly to making money by allowing amblers. policy-sellers, brothel keep e's a prostitutes to break the laws. its .1one,t omfeier5 andi men tried, at tirsI, to do their duty ; but the police commissioners, under the influen.-; or direction of Ruef, interferred witb their efforts to close illegal and im moral resorts; the police court judges allowing themselvse to be swayed by seltish politicial considerations, re leased the prisoners whom they ar rested. Conditions similar to this 'have been shown in this magazine to exist in New York, Ohicago, St. Louis, Pitts burg, and other great cities of Ameri ca. The results have been a general disintegration in the moral fibre of eities. Life itself is much more un safe than under the well-ordered gov ernment of European cities. The uurder rate in Chicago and New York is six or eight times as great as in London and Berlin. Even such a pri mary necessity of civilization as the safety of women is lost sight of. A leading Chicago newspaper said in 1906: It has ever been our proudest boast as a people that in this country wo man is respected and protected as she is in no other. That boast is becoming an empty one in Chicago. Women have not only been annoyed and insulted in great numbers on the streets within a very short time, but not a few have been murdered. In the year before. the Hollister tragedy there were seventeen mu-rders of wo men in Chicago, which attracted the attention of the city. The system of government which produces this result was well describ ed some years ago by the late Bishop Potter, speaking of .conditions in New York. A corrupt system, he said, whose infamous details have been steadily uncovered, to ou.r increasing horror and humiliation, was brazenly ignor ed by those who were fattening on its spoils, and the world was presented with the astounding spectacle of a great municipality, whose civic mech anism was largely employed in trad ing in the bodies and souls of the de fenseless. Aside from giving direct encour agement and propagation to the more terrible forms of vice, the European peasant saloonkeeper government of our cities furnishes a fitting field for so-called respectable men-but really criminals of the worst type-who help organize and perpetuate saloon gov ernment for the purpose of secu.ring by bribery, franchises for public util ities without paying therefor. Thus American cities 'have been robbed as well as badly governed. There are signs of amelioration of these conditions in most of the great cities o.f the country. But every ad vance is made against the fierce an tagonism of just suo~h systems ab Bishop Potter described; and those systems exist in every large Ainr ean city today-either in direct con trol or ready. to take control at 'the slightest sign of relaxation by the forces which are opposing them. And1 the foundation of this evil structure is the European peasant saloonkeep "McClure's Magazine,'' in the next year, will consider the horrible in fluence of the salo'n in American life. Dr. Williams will follow his article in the present number by studies of the influence of alcohol upon 'society at large, upon racial development and upon the State. The -author is espec ially equipped for his work. He is in the first place perhaps the great est living popularizer of national science and history in America; and *he has himself made life-long obser vations upon t-he influence of alcohol -both physical and social-first as a medical praetitioner in the t.reat ment of the insane *at the great asy lums at Bloomingdale and Randall's sland, and later by study,' and ob servation in the chief capitals of Eu rope, where he has lived the greater part of the last ten years. The sound judgment and impartial temper which have characterized his work in other fields will be found in his treatment of this great subject. WHAT SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACH ERS CAN DO. (Prepared by Miss Julia Colman.) It is generally understood by Sun day-shool teachers, that their first duty to their classes is to teach the Scriptures. But a large number have not yet asked themselves what the Sriptures teach about Temperance. They know, perhaps, some of the oft quoted texts, as "Look not upon the wine,'' etc., but will they give even such .texts their full weight and im portance, unless they take in the spirit of such passages as trhese: "Your bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost which is in you,'' '"The pure in heart shall se God ?' Is t-he body. steepledl in alcohol and nicotine, pure? Is it a lit dwelling )lace for the Holy Spirit? Ts it ready to have Christ and( the Fa:ier come in anid sup) with1 the tenan t? Youi wish to traini up those little one's whose nn even soconfiinglv into VOur. for lives of usefulness here amd Iappiiess hereafter. You have reasonl to believe that the use of al cobol and tobacco will be most seri ous hindrances to them in their ad vancement for this life and for the next. Have you ever warned them of this danger and sought to guard them against it? No danger? I thought so onee. I looked into the fair young faces in my own class: I looked around upon the healthy and happy boys on the other side, and I saw no sign of the blight tkat should come upon them. Yet t.he blight came. I -had the mor tification of seeing the cheeks of one of my own pets coarsened into those of a beer-drinker (begun medicinally, of course), and the sons of two of ficers in the school became sots! How many others were led away by these enemies to all purity and piety, I do not know; but I shall never forget that no teaching that they re ceiver in that Sunday-sehool, so far as I know, specifically warned them of this danger. No, I did not see.the danger then, but having seen the out come, I beg to warn you before it is too late and save you from a like mor tification and your scholars from a like disaster. Exceptional cases? Oh. no! All the sad drinkers were fair young children once, and a large proportion of them, probably more than 'half in this coun try, have been Sunday-school children at some time. How many of them do you suppose received any special Tem perance teaching, judging from your own observation and experience? I do not mean simply how many have heard Temperance "pieces" and son.rs. but how many were taught the nature and the danger of alcoholic liquors and shown how and why to :ivoid them? Danger! Oh, yes, there is danger to them all! Chicago reports 30,000 juvenile tipplers, and 12,000 of them are or have been in the Sunday school. Statistics from jails andpri sons show that most of the prisoners came there through drink, and a large propor tion of them -have been in Sunday school. Then society takes hold of these poor wretches and tries to re form and save them, when it would have been so much easier and so much better every way if that teaching had been given before they went so sadly astray. And then, we should not rest satis fed with merely those -we teach; we should send them forth so earnest and so eharged with the truth, that they become burning and shining lights to others. What a matter of rejoicing it would b.e to you, my dear Sunday school teacher, in some future day, of you could look back over the chil dren that 'have been from time to time ent-rusted to your care, and see them all safe from this destroyer of all good, and some of them devoting their God-given powers to saving others! And now, dear teacher, shall tihe good you do descend thus from generation to generation, and break in waves of living light on the far thest shores of time, or shall your neglect echo forever from the groans of lost souls t'hrough the dark cav erns of despair? CALESTON & WESTEN CAR OLINA EY. Schedule in effect May 31, 1908. Lv. Newberry(C N & L) 12:56 p.m. \r. Laurens 2:02 p.m. Lv. Laurens (C & W C) 2:35 p.m Ar. Greenville 4:00 p. Lv. Laurens . 2:32 p.m A r. Spartanburg 4:03 p.m. Lv. Spartanburg (So. IRy.) 5:00 p.m. Ar. Hendersonville 7:43 p.m. .\r. Asheville 8:50 p.m. Lv. Laurens (C & W C) 2:32, p.m. Ar. Greenwood 3:32 p.m. Ar. McCormiek 4:33 p.m Ar. Augusta 6:15 p.m. Tn-Weekly Parlar Car line be navn Augusta and Asheville. Trains Nos. I and 2, leave Augusta-.Tuesda.y. Thu~rsdays and Saturdays, leave A -heille Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridavs. Note: The above arrivale an:d de. partures, as well as conn-eetions with other companmes, are given as ifor. tation, and are not guaranteed. Ernest Williams, Gen. Pan. A.gt., Gen. TP. Bryan, Greenvine, S. C.. NOTICE OF FINAL SETTLEIMENT Notice is hereby given that I wil] make a final settlement of the estate of William C. Tyree, deceased, on May 17, 1909, in the Probate Court for Newberry County, S. C., and -vill immediately thereafter apply to said Court for a final diseharge as Admin istrator of the personal estate of said deceased. J. P. Tyree, Adlmr. &c., of Wm.Ti C. Tyree, decd. I April 14th, 1909. 4-16-0 4t. EXCUSION RATES VIA SOUTHERN RAILWAY. To Charleston, S. C., Columbia, S. C., Spartanburg, S. C., and Washington ,D. C. To Chaxleston and return:-Ac count Meeting of Shriners the South ern Railway announces very low round tip rates. Tickets will be sold April 21 and 22 limited for re turn, leaving Charleston not later than midnight, April 23, 1909. To Columbia and return:-Account Musical Festival very low round trip tickets will be sold April 21, 22 and 23 limited for return, leaving Colum bia not later than midnight April 24, 1909. To Spartanburg and return:-Ac count South Atlantic States Musical Festival very cheap round trip tick ets will be sold, April 19, 20, 21, and 22 for trains scheduled to arrive in Spartanburg before noon April 23, 1909. Limited for return, leaving Spartanburg not later than midnight April 24th, 1909. TTo Washington, D. C., and re turn:-Account Annual Meeting Daughters of the American Revolu tion, Washington, D. C., very low round trip tickets will be on sale Apr. 15 and 16 only, from all stations, limited for return, leaving Washing ton up to and including, but not later than midnight, April 28th, 1909. For detailed information, tickets, etc., apply to Southern Railway tick et agents or address, J L. Meek, Asst. General Passenger Agent, J. C. Lusk, Division Passenger Agent, Charleston, S. C. ANNUAL MEETING STOCKHOLD ERS. The annual meeting of the stock holders of The Newberry Cotton Mills will be held in the rooms of The Chamber of Commerce at New berry, S. C., Wednesday, May 5th, 1909, at eleven o'clock. Geo. S. Mower, See. 4-16-09 3t Itaw. NEWBEEMY UNION STATION. Arrival arnd Departure of Passenger Trains-Effective 12.01 A. M. Sunday, June 7th, 1908. Southern Railway: No. 15 for! Greenville .. .. 8.57a.m. No. 18 for Columbia .. .. 1.40) p.m. No. 11 for Greenville .....3.20 p.m. No. 16 for Columbia .... .8.47 p.m. C., N. & L. E *No. 22 for Columbia ... . .8.47 a.m. No. 52 for Greenville .. 12.56 p.mn No. o3 for Columbia .. .. 3.20 p.nm *No. 21 for Laurens .. .. 7.25 p.m *Does not run on Sunday This time table shows the time.~ a: which trains may be expected to de part from this station, but their de parture is not guaranteed and the time shown is subject to change with ot noti'e. G. L. Robinson, Station Master. BLUE RIDGE SCHEDULES. Eastbound. No. 18, leaves Anderson at 6.30 a. m., for connection at Belton witn Southern for Greenville. No. 12, from Walhalla. leaves An derson at 10.15 a. in., for connection at Belton with Southern Railway for Columbia and Greenville. No. 20, leaves Anderson at 2.20 p. mn., for connections at Belton with Southern Railway for Greenville. No. 8, daily except Sunday, from Walhalla arrives Anderson 6.24 p. in., with connections at Sene.ea with Southern Railway from points southb No. 10, from Walhalla, leaves An erson at 4.57 p. mn., for conndetions at Belton with Southern Railway for, Greenville and Columbia. Westbound. No. 17, arrives at Anderson at 7.50 . mn., from Belton with connections from Greenville. No. 9, arrives at Anderson at -12.24 p. in., from Belton with connections1 from Greenville and Columbia. Goes to Walhalla. No. 19, arrives at Anderson at 3.40 p. in., from Belton with connections from Greenville. No. 11, arrives at Anderson at 6.29 p. in., from Belton with con netions from Greenville and Colum bia. Goes to Walhalla. No. 7, daily except Sunday, leaves Anderson at 9.20 a. in., for Walhalla, iith connections at Seneca for local nonts south. Nos. 17, 18, 19, and 20 are mixed t'ans between Anderson and Belton. Nos. 7 and 8 are local freight trains, carrying passengers, between Anderson and Walhalla and between Wlhalla and AndersoE DIVERSION AND RELAXATION FOR YOU Pleasure and Education for Your Family in the Possession of an INNER-PLAYER PIANO It is an accepted fact that every The Inner-Player Piano will do business man needs some daily relax- this, and it is the only thing that thatwillab- Will. In the vast repertoire of the ation-some diversion thatInner- Player Piano theie is musc to sorb him for the time being. suit every taste, meet every require Why not provide one for yourself ment. that your family can enjoy with you Why not follow the example of so -that will give your wife pleasure many prominent business men and and that will exert a beneficial in- provide an Inner-Player Piano for fluence on your children, yourself and your family NOW? Do Not Fall Into the Error of Thinking You Can Buy an Inner-Player Piano Anywhere. The Genuine Inner-Player Piano is Sold in South Carolina ONLY at : : : : : : : Cable Piano Co. EVERYTHING KNOWN IN MUSIC Cab!e Building J. V. WALLiACE, Manager Charleston, S. C.2 How About WE'VE GOT A GOOD ONE ILE T US SHOW YOU TO KEEP OUT THE FLIES you should be prepared with a full outfit of doors and window * screens. No longer recognized as luxuries, they are regarded as absolute necessities as providing - w the only effectual remedy against flies, mosquitoes, bugs and all intruders The kind we sell are of the best wire netting and sea soned wood frames. Send us your orders for Lawn Mowers, Lawn Sprays and Gar (len Hose. SgUMER BROTHuRS Ori