ustxtxb_obs_1955_01_17_50_00006-00000_000.pdf

The Texas Mind Liquor Starves Widows, Affects Moral Restraint, Kenedy Drys Say By DAN STRAWN Kenedy Correspondent The Texas Observer I knew Hugh Smith, the proprietor of the Kenedy Boot Shop, to be a dry, and he was represented as such by people to whom I had inquired regarding the whereabouts of prohibitionists. I went to the Boot Shop and he was in. I made my inquiry and he replied: “I’m for prohibition. I think alcohol speaks for itself and the results we can see. I don’t know any good that it does and I do know the harm. I’ve read statistics that show the greater majority of girls of college age are acting as bar maids than there are enrolled in colleges anywhere.” “Have you ever had a drink?” I asked. “Yes, years ago I used to drink. I know the effects of it on your body, mind, and character,” he replied. “How did it affect you?” I asked. “Anybody that knows anything about liquor at all knows that it affects your moral restraint,” he said. “Did it affect your moral restraint?” “That was thirty years ago. I don’t want to tell any of my intimate life’s secrets, but it will af oit. fect anyone’s moral restraint.” Mrs. Hill of the state social welfare department in Karnes City, the county seat, had come in to look at some leather purses. She commented of liquor: “It preserves the dead and destroys the living.” Swede was in the doorway. Hugh suggested that I interview him, as he was a prohibitionist also. I did SO. Swede said, “That’s what we need. Whiskey and beer are no good. Health goes bad, divorce cases, murder, killings, they lose their minds, spend all their money, go to poor house, family starve, I know. I seen it done in Kenedy. If he ain’t got no money he spend all he make. I found out I couldn’t drink Karnes County dry.” I went over to one of the local liquor stores and asked for comments. They told me that Hoss Hendricks and Tommy Dan Hubbard would give me a fine cross section of opinion on the subject. I decided to go over to Bill Brown’s Friendly Bar first because it was the closest. Bill was against prohibition. “Where you got it there ain’t no money, and where you ain’t got it there’s where the money is. If you got it they spend their money somewhere else. Nixon has more empty beer bottles than all of Karnes County.” Nixon is 40 miles from Kenedy and dry. I asked the Secretary’. of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Charlie Talbot. He said he was for whatever the public voted for. If it voted wet, he was for it being wet, if it was for it being dry, he was in favor of its being dry. It took some time to locate Tommy Dan Hubbard. He is president of the Karnes County Drys. He runs a grocery store called “Hubbard’s on the Hill.” There was a big prohibition poster on the wall behind him on which renowned athletes attested to their revulsion for potable spirits, and I knew I had found my man. I asked him. “Any place is better off without beer or whiskey being sold. Less automobile accidents, fewer divorces, and less arrests. That’s been proven.” Page 6 January 17, 1955 THE TEXAS OBSERVER “You never did drink liquor did you?” I asked. He smiled and said. “Yes I did. I’m not proud of it, but I did. I told my boys to not take the first drop. But, if they try it, they ought to bring it home and try it. “We get a lot of good materiel through the Methodist Church,” he said. “What does the church say about it?” I asked. “The Methodist Church is spending two hundred and fifty thousand dollars on a film showing what alcohol will do for you. We had an essay contest in high school on it. “These magazine ads show pretty girls with a whiskey, glassful. They don’t show them after they’ve emptied them four or five times. The way to get rid of it is to get back to God-think about Christianitythink of the word of God, then they won’t want to drink.” “Do you believe the Bible teaches you not to drink?” I asked. “I believe they drank red juice. I’m not too well versed on the Bible. It says in the Bible not to drink it when it has that there alcohol in it, be temperate in all things, too. A man can overindulge in eating, too. Just because a man drinks isn’t that he isn’t a good fellow. A man ought to show him how to help himself.” “Did alcohol affect you?” I asked. “It didn’t do me any good.” “Any trouble?” “I didn’t get any good out of it. If I’d kept drinking I’d have gotten in trouble. It affects anybody that does drink it. We’re up against social drinking-this cocktail drinking. A few drinks, then six or eight or ten. There’s where the danger is.” I found J. Brannon Treadwell in a domino game in the Goff Hotel. He is about 70 years old and a retired railroad man. He seemed displeased about the way the domino game was going, so during a break I asked him what he thought of prohibition, f o r publication, of \\ course. He looked at me in rather a hostile fashion. “It ain’t worth a damn. It’s just to make a bunch of damn bootleggers rich. Anybody that’d vote for prohibition is nuts. It’s just for a bunch of racketeers. It just causes a bunch of people to go blind from the fusel oil in that bootleg hooch. I know a bootlegger that got rich off of moonshine liquor and died and went to hell.” “Do you think you can contact him there?” I asked. “No, his soul’s done scorched. Purgatory is heaven to that sonofabitch. He’s done burned up if there’s such a place as hell. If there ain’t he’s come back to earth reincarnated as a rattlesnake or a jackass. Prohibitioh is the worst curse of the civilized world.” I interviewed Dick Mueller on the subject. “I don’t believe in telling anybody what to do with their time or their money. You put lawlessness in the hands of people who make a profit out of it,” he said. Down at the Bus Station, I spoke with Joe Homeyer, a Humble Service Station manager. “Dump it all in the river just before a big cloudburst. Especially if the river is on a rise,” was his advice. Mrs. Lorene Smith of Smith’s Texaco Station said: “It don’t rightfully make a damn.” Elmo Martin, a cowboy, made this statement: “It’s just ignorance if they vote it in. It’ll just bring bootlegging on and make some rich people.” I met Mrs. Lola Cannon, a farm and ranchwoman, at the bank. I asked her if she knew any prohibitionists around town that I could interview. “I don’t know any people that aren’t prohibitionists. Those are the only people that I know.” She said. Mrs. Alta Garrison at the Goff Hotel, a retired apartment house owner had this statement to make. “I’m a prohibitionist and one of the strongest ones there is. I’m so strong on it I don’t know where it is. I don’t like a thing in this world about liquor and I don’t like anybody that drinks it. I think it’s the worse thing in this world. There couldn’t be anything any worse.” I asked her if she ever had a drink. “I hope I never have,” she said. “I don’t even taste it. It’s starved more widows and made more orphans than anything else.”, AUSTIN HAS 180,000 AUSTIN, Jan. 17-Austin now has a population of about 180,000 persons, computed on the basis of the present ratio of water meters to population. A. R. Davis, superintendent of water distributiori, made the announcement. CLASSIFIED ADS To submit a classified ad, write Drawer r. Capitol Statior., Aurtin, or call 70746. Help Wanted STRINGERS-The Texas Observer is building up a bank of reliable reporters all over Texas. Professional reporters of an enlightened turn of mind are urged to contact the Editor, The Texas Observer, Drawer F, Capitol Station, Austin. ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES-If you have some spare time and would like to help The Texas Observer grow, write the Business Manager for advertising solicitation forms. Percentage of sales can be arranged. The Texas Observer. Drawer F, Capitol Station, Austin. Help Wanted-Female Make extra money. Address, Mail postcards spare time every week. BICO, 143 Belmont, Belmont, Mass. LEGAL ADS THE STATE OF TEXAS COUNTY OF TRAVIS In the name and by the authority of the State of Texas Notice is hereby given as follows: TO : Jessie Gentry, Roberta Gentry, both of whom reside in Los Angeles, California, and Albertha Allen, who resides in Travis County, Texas, and the unknown owner or owners of the property hereinafter described or any interest therein ; the heirs and legal representatives and the unknown heirs and legal representatives aach of the above named and mentioned persons who may be deceased ; and the corporate officers, trustees, receivers and stockholders of any of the above named or mentioned parties which may be corporations, defunct or otherwise, together with the successors, heirs and assigns of such corporate officers, trustees, receivers, and stockholders, and any and all persons, including adverse claimants, owning or having or claiming any legal or equitable interest in or lein upon the following described property delinquent to Plaintiff herein, for taxes, to-wit : All that certain lot, tract, or parcel of land lying and being situated in the County of Travis, State of Texas described as follows : The North West one-fourth \( 1/4of land out of the George W. Spear League, as recorded in Volume X, page 103, Deed Records of Travis County, Texas ; and being the same property conveyed by Horace Allen, et ux, Lizzie Allen to Jessie Gentry, et ux, Roberta Gentry by Deed dated April 10, 1929, and recorded in Volume 435, page 308, Deed Records of Travis County, Texas. Which said property is delinquent to Plaintiff for taxes in the following amounts : $452.33, exclusive of interest, penalties and costs, and there is included in this suit in addition to the taxes all said interest. penalties and costs thereon, allowed by law up to and including the day of judgment herein. You are hereby notified that suit has been brought by the City of Austin as Plaintiff, against the above named persons, and the State of Texas and the County of Travis, as Defendants, by petition filed on the 16th day of November, 1954, in a certain suit styled City of Austin vs. Jessie Gentry, et al for collection of the taxes on said property and that suit is now pending in the District Court of Travis County 53rd Judicial District, and the file number of said suit is units which assess and collect taxes’ on the property hereinabove described not made parties to this suit are, NONE. Plaintiff and all other taxing units who set up their tax claims seek recovery of delinquent ad valorem taxes on the property hereinabove described, and in addition to the taxes all interest, penalties, and costs allowed by law thereon up to and including the day of judgment herein, and the establishment and foreclosure of liens, if any, securing the payment of same, as provided by law. All parties to this suit, including Plaintiffs, Defendants, and Intervenors, shall take notice that claims not only for any taxes which were delinquent on said property, ,at the time of this suit was filed but all taxes becoming . delinquent thereon at any time thereafter up to the day of judgment including all interest, penalties, and costs allowed by law thereon, may, upon request therefor, be recovered herein without further citation or notice to any parties herein, and all said parties shall take notice of and plead and answer to all claims and pleadings now on file and which may hereafter be filed in said cause by all other parties herein, and all of those taxing units above named who may intervene herein and set up their respective tax .claims against said property. You are hereby commanded to appear and defend such suit on the first Monday days from and after the date of issuance hereof, the same being the 21st day of February A. D., 1955 \(which is the return able District Court, 53rd Judicial District of Travis County, Texas, to be held at the courthouse thereof, then and there to show cause why judgment shall not be rendered for such taxes, penalties, interests and costs, and condemning said property and ordering foreclosure of the constitutional and statutory tax liens thereon for taxes due the Plaintiff and the taxing units parties hereto, and those who may intervene herein, together with all interest, penalties and costs allowed by law up to and including the day of judgemnt herein, and all costs of this suit. Issued and given under my hand and seal of said court in the City of Austin, Travis County, Texas, this 6th day of January A. D., 1955. 0. T. MARTIN, JR. Clerk of the District Court 39-2 Travis County, Texas THE STATE OF TEXAS COUNTY OF TRAVIS In the name and by the authority of the State of Texas Notice is hereby given as follows: To : Harry Grant, whose residence is unknown, and H. Gilbert Grant, whose residence is unknown, and the unknown owner or owners of the property hereinafter described or any interest therein ; the heirs and legal representatives and the unknown heirs and legal representatives of each of the above named and mentioned persons who may be deceased ; and the corporate officers, trustees, receivers and stockholders of any of the above named or mentioned parties which may be corporations, defunct or otherwise, together with the successors, heirs and assigns of such corporate officers, trustees, receivers, and stockholders, and any and all persons, including adverse claimants. owning or having or claiming any legal or equitable interest in or lein upon the following described property delinquent to Plaintiff herein, for taxes, to-wit: All that certain lot, tract, or parcel of land lying and being situated in the County of Travis, State of Texas. deAddition, a Subdivision of Outlots Thirtysion “B”, in the City of Austin, Travis County, Texas according to the map or plat of said Addition recorded in Plat Book 2, page 154, of the Plat Records of Travis County, Texas ; and being the same property conveyed to H. Gilbert Grant by J. L. Costley by Deed dated May 12, 1915 and recorded in Volume 291, page 422, Deed Records of Travis County, Texas. Which said Property is delinquent to Plaintiff for taxes in the following amounts : $42.43, exclusive of interest, penalties and costs, and there is included in this suit in addition to the taxes all said interest, penalties and costs thereon, allowed by law up to , and including the day of judgment herein. You are hereby notified that suit has been brought by the City of Austin as Plaintiff, against the above named persons, and the State of Texas and the County of Travis, as Defendants, by petition filed on the 23rd day of November, 1954, in a certain suit styled City of Austin vs. Harry Grant, et al for collection of the taxes on said property and that suit is now pending in the District Court of Travis County 53rd Judicial District, and the file number of said suit is 99,942, that the names of all taxing units which assess and collect taxes on the property hereinabove described not made parties to this suit are, NONE.