Dry Town Preferable To Wet

Tue., March 2, 1999

From The Spokesman-Review March 12, 1910

To the Editor of The Spokesman-Review: All intelligent men of this country should stand by the “dry town” and oppose the “wet town” in every way possible. No man but the fool and the good-for-nothing would ever boost for a “wet town.”

In every wet town you find the most “undesirable persons” hanging around, waiting for someone to come around to treat them, or even beg for a “two-bits” to get a meal with.

I know this from experience, for I was in Spokane last year in May, and every once in a while I would be stopped by “white men” asking me for “two-bits” to eat on. Even if I am an “Injun,” I have never known a time when I stooped so low as to beg a “two-bit” piece from any white man.

We had about half a dozen saloons in Culdesac some time back, but it is a “dry town” now, and has a most respectable appearance, fine school building, also two banks, and prosperity can be seen everywhere; no “bums” or hoboes hang around. A person who would hire a drunkard is taking chances, for they are not competent or to be trusted in any kind of work.

You have got to show me where the saloons help the people in any way toward any good result, for I am from Nez Perce County, Idaho. Lewis S. Reuben Myrtle, Idaho

This sidebar appeared with the story: NEWS OF THE DAY Headlines from March 12, 1910 Roosevelt Met By O’Laughlin For The Spokesman-Review/ Chartered Steamer, With Correspondent Aboard, Finds Returning Hunter on Upper White Nile Lost Nine Weeks, Men Are Rescued/Farallon’s Missing Boat Crew Found by the Tahoma/Hope Almost Gone/Braved Danger to Seek Aid for Survivors of Wrecked Steamer Morgan in Rome’s Art Galleries/Revels in Opportunity to View Worlds’s Great Masterpieces

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