Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 September 1901 — FAIR WILL QUENCH THIRST. [ARTICLE]

FAIR WILL QUENCH THIRST.

Exposition Officials to Canoe Suspension of Dispensary Law. The thirst of the visitors to the Charleston (S. C.) exposition has been considered by the directors of the dispensary and will be provided for. The authorities are active in suppression of “blind tigers” but there is a desire to win Charleston over to the dispensary and in the placating the directors are willing to go beyond the law. No one is likely to ask for a restraining order from the courts. After conferring with Attorney General Averill, the dispensary directors expressed themselves aagwilling to have six or eight dispensaries on the exposition grounds for the convenience of the visitors. Mr. Averill asked if a dispensary could be operated in connection with a restaurant. The directors held that such a proceeding would not conform to the letter of the law, but they consented to let a dispenser have his booth adjoining that of a restaurateur and patrons could give orders for beer and wine to case waiters. The directors ruled, to get around the prohibitive law in such cases, that the waiters would be “servants of the guests, not servants of the restaurant-keeper.” So that for all practical purposes the dispensary law will stand suspended in Charleston during the exposition. Charleston has been fighting for exemption from the dispensary law and in view of the peculiar situation there and the impossibility of enforeng it it is probable the authorities would be glad to make the concession could they do so without acknowledging defeat.