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circumstances leading up to the engagement of Ike
Cribb, an immodist, homely country youth that ev
ery girl in the county had refused to marry, to Har
vey Harper, who as Miss Daisy McLendon, the new
teacher of the village school, was to appear as the
bride. It is needless to suggest that, the affair was
much to the senator's liking and that he consented to
act the part of minister in the transaction.
For this special occasion he wrote the following
ceremony which under the flickering kerosene lamp
in one of the town stores he read to the contracting
parties:
" Friends, we have assembled here for the purpose
of rebuking one of our young men for his folly. If
there be any here tonight who may know any good
reason why this should not be done they will now
and here make that fact known or forever after
hold their peace."
Then with the joining of right hands, the usual
"I will" and “ I do,' ’ the congratulat ions of minister
and friends (?) present. Mr. and Mrs. Cribb left the
building and repaired to the bridal chamber in a
nearby home specially prepared for them. It was
here that the identity of the bride was discovered
and Cribb's furious and ferocious attack on Harper
cairn? near costing that gentleman his life.
It is not known what become of Cribb after that
night. He was last seen hurrying down the dusty,
moonlit road to his father’s humble home, with John
Koddenberry's mile-t 00-long coat which he had bor
rowed t<> marry in. beating against the calves of his
legs. He left a letter saying that he had been treat
mi as he deserved to be since he should have waited
until becoming better acquainted with Miss McLen
don before proposing marriage and advised all
young men to steer clear of hurried engagements,
especially to young women strangers whom they had
no means of knowing long. The letter had the effect
to produce a depression in the business being done
bv other matrimonial agencies in Shinburnallv, and
made the persons who played the hoax, feel at ease
since in the young man's own mind he had gotten
nothing more than what should have and did come
to him.
Savannah Chamber of Commerce on the' Liquor
Question at Meeting Held on April 14th.
The following resolutions by the Savannah Cham
ber of Commerce should have the endorsement of
every law-abiding citizen of the South.
“Whereas, it is recognized that both from a moral
and an economic standpoint intemperance is an
offence against society, and that one of the most
vital questions affecting our people and our civiliza
tion today is the solution of the liquor problem in
such manner as will best promote the interests of
real temperance in our country, and
"Whereas, we believe that experience in this and
other countries has demonstrated that no satisfactory
or permanent solution of this momentous problem
has ever been obtained, or can ever be obtained, by
agitation appealing to the passions and fanaticism
of men. resulting only in hasty, ill considered and
indiscriminate legislation which draws no distinction
between that which is hurtful and that which is
harmless, between the insurmountable differences in
conditions existing in rural districts and in large
centres of population ; but seeking by means of one
THE REASON
sweeping drastic enactment to cover all cases and to
include all conditions; laws which nominally abolish
the liquor traffic but do not substantially promote
temperance, and in the larger cities not only do not
materially diminish drunkenness but from the dras
tic nature of their provisions themselves increase the
difficulty of their efficient enforcement in such
centres.
“Therefore Be It Resolved, by the Savannah
Chamber of Commerce that in the opinion of this
Chamber the time has come in Georgia when the
business men and business bodies of the State should
make themselves heard in this matter and should
address themselves to the calm, conservative and
businesslike consideration of this problem to the end
that the laws upon our statute books may be framed
upon the sane and practical basis of reason and not
prejudice, of judgment and not passion or ill direct
ed mil husiasm.
“Resolved Further, that the movement in Georgia
which seeks to abolish the “saloon.” the “grog
shop and the “dive," with their attendant evils,
has our entire sympathy ami approval and must
meet with the sympathy ami approval of conserva
tive business men everywhere; but the result of that
movement as expressed in the general prohibition
law adopted August S, 1907. we consider to be illogi
cal and impracticable of efficient enforcement in our
larger cities and to a considerable extent even in our
smaller towns. The fundamental error of our law
is that it ignores the fart that only an infinitesimally
small per rent of mankind are drunkards, ami it
ignores the laid that all beverages are not hurtful.
It blindly seeks to measure all men by one standard,
ami to classify all malt, fermented and distilled
beverages upon one and the same level, and pro
hibits them all alike.
“Resolved Further, That the present law of Geor
gia unwisely and unnecessarily operates against the
welfare and material interests of the State in that it
forbids the manufacture and sale of malt beverages
and domestic wines. It cannot be truthfully denied
that in the wino drinking districts of France, Ger
many and Italy, and in the beer and ale drinking dis
tricts of Germany, Holland and Switzerland, where
win** and beer are consumed by men, women and
children almost universally, there is more of actual
temperance and the people are perhaps more healthy,
more thrifty, and more law abiding than can be
found in any other civilized portions of the globe.
Pure beers, pure ales and pure light winos have
demonstrated that they are the most efficient allies of
real temperance. 'They do not provoke to crimes ami
their increased consumption always and everywhere
diminishes the use of distilled alcoholic drinks.
They are in fact to a very large extent food pro
ducts and should not be indiscriminately confused
and classed with distilled spirits. There are large
sections of Georgia, which in soil ami climate are
capable of competing with California ami other
countries in the production and manufacture of light
wines, and large amounts of Georgia capital have
already been invested in local breweries. It is to
the material interests of the State and it is to the
interest of temperance that the State should see to it
that the native wines and beers produced, manufac
tured and sold here should be pure and wholesome
and to encourage their production. The present law
which prohibits them is in this illogical; it is detri
mental rather than helpful to real temperance and it
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