Lexington Progress, April 12, 1908
Lexington does not often have sensations coming its way, but on last Saturday morning, the good ladies of the local W.C.T.U., aided by some other ladies and gentlemen, furnished a fitting climax to the long suffering the town has endured since the legal saloon was banished from the town. On Friday afternoon it became known here that W.H. Lancaster, one of the Jackson saloonists closed out April 1, had shipped a consignment of liquors from Jackson to Lexington on the local freight train of that afternoon. Lexington has been overrun with whiskey bootleggers almost ever since the saloon was abolished and a few years ago, one Bill Daws protected by a Winchester gun, a bulldog and a large and faithful patronage, sold barrel after barrel of vile intoxicants, but the idea of perhaps a whole carload of booze being openly dumped in the town, caused considerable interest which resulted in a number of W.C.T.U. ladies getting together Saturday morning, reinforced by other ladies and a few gentlemen who were willing to stand by them. Mr. Lancaster granted the ladies a conference in the Stewart drug store and there the matter was to some extent thrashed out, Mrs. J.W. Harvey speaking for the ladies and Mr. Lancaster representing himself.
Mrs. Harvey told Mr. Lancaster that the ladies were informed that he wanted and intended to quit the whiskey business with the closing of his Jackson house and the ladies wanted to help him quit, etc. Mr. Lancaster stated that the liquor was his property, that he could not afford to deprive his family of its value and added that the ladies were meddling in what did not concern them, that there were men in Lexington to attend to business affairs. Mr. Lancaster declined selling the liquors to the ladies, disclaimed any intention to sell it here and declared himself a law abiding citizen. During the conference in the Stewart drug store, Mr. Lancaster was asked point blank how much whiskey he had and his reply was, as we are informed, "Twenty or thirty gallons; possibly a little more or a little less." At some time after the matter came up, John W. Stewart, our Town Recorder, told Mr. Lancaster he would pay for the whiskey destroyed.
The entire crowd of ladies, Mr. Stewart, Mr. Lancaster, Rev. A.E. Cole and others left the drug store and went to the depot, where on a sidetrack stood the car containing the whiskey. On the understanding that the liquor should be destroyed and paid for, the car was opened and no time lost in the smashing program. Here too, Mrs. Harvey made a very touching little talk and taking in her hand the first bottle passed out, handed it over to Mrs. C.G. Gathings who opened the ceremonies. The entire lot of jugs, newly filled bottles and case bottles went the same way and here is an inventory of it as kept by John W. Stewart: 27 Gallons, 92 Quarts, 243 Pints, 146 Half Pints, Remnants--$2.45, 10 Quarts Champagne--$40. The bill footed up the sum of $264.95 and John W. Stewart has issued his check to cover it.
We have given a bare recital of what happened--we might greatly embellish it, for the occasion was far out of the ordinary. That the ladies were backed in their action by the better element of Lexington there is no doubt. The wisdom of paying for the whiskey is questioned, for there is not much moral point in giving Mr. Lancaster a market for the whiskey left on his hands--much of it, we are told by men present, being of the vilest kind. There are towns in Tennessee, which have not had the long suffering experience of Lexington, where the car would have been forcibly entered, the whiskey destroyed, and Mr. Lancaster and the railroad company as owners of the property forcibly entered and seized, to "pop their whips" by means of the law. Our people who did not favor the accursed smuggling of whiskey, who could not buy it from the bootleggers if they would, have suffered long and patiently while the town was making a desperate name abroad and we trust the unique deal of last Saturday between the W.C.T.U. ladies and Mr. Lancaster will mark the beginning of a more respectable era in Lexington.