centuated features, and moderate temperament.

Professor Mason's theory as to the disappearance of the blonde was heatedly discussed not long ago, so heatedly in fact that he informed me that he is "still in close retreat" from the "hail storm" that descended upon him, "resolved that this burnt child has had blonde fire enough." But Professor Mason has never denied his belief in the altogether reasonable theory that the blonde type will disappear here. It is a matter of common observation that in all countries nature inclines toward certain colors. The Negro in Africa is the most striking example of a rule which. applies to animals as well as to men. "Indian characteristics," Professor Mason is quoted as saying, "are those which nature loves in America, and the blonde must decrease. Eventually we will all have dark hair, dark hazel eyes, and dark complexions, depending somewhat upon the altitude in which we live. Of course, modern artificialities of life remove us somewhat from natural conditions. We modify and control the temperature of our houses. We modify ourselves and the animal kingdom. Transportation facilities overcome natural tendencies so that we do not depend alone upon the food of one soil. Yet the gradual changes. wrought by our climate continue."

As to the stature of the future American, it must vary with his place of residence. Among thousands of men enlisted in the northern armies during the civil war the recruits from the mountainous states: Vermont, New Hampshire, and Kentucky were unmistakably taller than the others. Stanley found that the same rule prevailed in Africa, where the tallest natives invariably inhabited the mountainous regions, five thousand feet or more above the sea-level. The sturdiest natives dwelt in altitudes of from three thousand to five thousand feet. But there is no need to enlarge upon the influence of climate and altitude upon physical development, nor to emphasize the uniformly benign, though various, natural conditions surrounding life upon this continent.

Professor W. J. McGee has long defended the theory that the American type was now and would continue in an increasing degree to be the most beautiful found anywhere in the world. He has

gone still further in this statement, which I have his authority to reproduce, claiming that our present type of beauty is higher than that of the world's classical standards. "Just as cross-fertilization,' Professor McGee says, "is beneficial to plant life, the intermingling of peoples in this country must produce the most beautiful, most intellectual, and most powerful race of the world. Measured in any manner whatever, the American, even to-day, presents the highest type of beauty which ever adorned the earth. Through our intermixing process we absorb the best features of the other peoples and eliminate those which are objectionable. The American type of beauty is already higher than that of the ancient Greeks or Romans."

To this general statement Professor McGee added the injunction that, "Of course, it is to be borne in mind that blood blending is but one of two correlative agencies involved in the development of excellencies in type; the correlative factor or agency being that of intensification and increase of prepotency, which may be (and in stock-breeding is) attained by segregation and in-and-in breeding. Accordingly, it would be erroneous to ascribe the excellence of the American type of beauty solely to the complexity of our blood; for in fact the excellence is due to the complete assimilation of the combined strains in such manner that the resulting stream is intensified no less than broadened."

Here then we have the voice of the scientist confirming the logical, the common-sense view of what the future American will be. Immigration will not degrade the race; it will improve it, partly because the conditions of life here will tend to uplift, and partly because only the fittest will count in the evolution of the ultimate American. ultimate American. We also have the authority of the anthropologists for the prophecy that the final type of American will be the peer of any race intellectually, and that he will possess great beauty and vitality. We also have the strongest reasons for believing that he will be of dark complexion.

With these assurances we can look more calmly at the annual reports of the immigration commissioner, secure in the belief that the final American type will not shame its ancestors.

HE history of the Liquor Dispensary of South Carolina is the history of the State of South Carolina for the past thirteen years. In those thirteen years there has been almost no event of consequence within the limits of the state that has not been stamped with the die of the dispensary. Laws have been enacted, political campaigns have been conducted, men have risen and fallen in public estimation, bloody feuds have been fought, all for or against the powerful machine which has been built up around the control of the liquor trade by the state.

It seems incredible to those not familiar with the conditions in that belligerent little commonwealth in which the course of statehood has never run very smoothly, that for thirteen years the people should have been contentedly dominated by a monster conceived in unwholesome purpose, and big with the certainty of graft. At times the malfeasance has been so open, so impudent, that it seemed that the limit of patience had been reached; again the grafters quarreled over the spoils, and from purely internecine riot the dispensary seemed doomed to fall.

At every

crisis, however, when there was danger from the disgusted public, or from the disgruntled grafters within, the Little Father of the dispensary, the master steersman, in the person of Benjamin Ryan Tillman, now senior senator from South Carolina, took the helm. Keen, resourceful, confident, with a wool-hat following that regarded him, and still regards him, with a pathetic adulation amounting almost to worship, Tillman has

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saved the dispensary many times from its enemies, and more than once from its friends. In the session of the legislature just passed, standing on the Speaker's desk, in the state capitol at Columbia, the senior senator raged, threatened, entreated and saved the dispensary again from the defeat that threatened it.

Volumes could be written, not alone of the dispensary, but of the Tillman nursery in which it was nourished, and the Tillman régime under which it flourished and rottened. Let it suffice to say, that from its inception, the political fortunes of Senator Tillman have ever been cast with those of the dispensary; and though the dispensary has at times been unruly, and has at times been subjected to brief periods of corrective discipline, it has been on the whole a grateful child, and has seldom failed to respond to the call of the patron. At present it is dutiful, industrious and fairly discreet.

Before the day of the dispensary there was, practically, county option in South Carolina; that is, it was easy for a Prohibition county to obtain the right from the legislature to adopt its own method, though nominally high license prevailed. There are several counties where the sale of liquor has never been in favor. Marlborough County, for instance, could be depended upon to vote prohibition at every election. When the dispensary came on the scene, the counties that were naturally prohibition suffered a change which will be referred to later. On the other hand, the counties which voted for high license before the coming of the dispensary were unquestionably in a bad condition. There were abuses which could not be overlooked. There was

license in its worst sense in many of the cities. This fact was the original excuse offered for the dispensary, and undoubtedly seemed to many sufficient reason why the state should don the white apron and become barkeeper for the people.

The real reason for the establishment of the system was not far to seek. It must be remembered that in South Carolina, as in all the far southern states, there is but one political party. The whites are Democratic, for reasons which it is unnecessary to explain. The handful of negro voters in South Carolina does not make the Republican party in that state a factor in politics. The negro is practically disfranchised. So it comes about that the one party in the state is divided into factions, which unite only on national issues.

When Benjamin R. Tillman became Governor of South Carolina, the "reign of the aristocracy," as he termed the preceding administrations, came to an end. Tillman had made a remarkable campaign. He had risen slowly from the plow, unprepossessing in appearance, uncultured, unskilled in the finesse of politics; but with a tremendous energy, a keenness in judging men and things, and a bull-dog tenacity. Tillman, from the first, cried out against what he termed the frauds and grafts of the aristocrats. There may have been something in his charges or there may not; it is not material, for there was certainly no imminent danger from the aristocrats, who were, in their intentions, at worst, weak.

As a stump-speaker, Tillman at that time, as at the present time, had no equal in the state. He stumped South Carolina in the summer season and convinced the farmers that they had been swindled at the hands of their more cultured brethren. He bitterly attacked Charleston, whose people were representative of the traditions of the southern ante-bellum days. And he won-little need be said of the gubernatorial contest-won overwhelmingly.

It was after Tillman became governor that he was confronted with the old question of the sale of intoxicating liquors. The party which had elected him seemed doomed to go to pieces on the question of high license or prohibition. The exponents of the latter alternative were

strong. It was necessary to appease both factions, so far as possible, and, with his eyes ever fixed on the United States Senate, he set about to cement the warring factions of his machine, and to place himself unequivocally at the head.

About this time some one suggested the dispensary system as a means of settling the disputes of the liquor question and of creating a line of retainers in the consequent necessary dispensers, constables and other officers. The town of Athens, in Georgia, was then trying the experiment of municipal control of the sale of intoxicants, in package, and buying and retailing through a committee appointed for that purpose. If this was successful in Athens, it was argued, why not in South Carolina? Why not have the liquor traffic within the borders of the state under the control of the state? Why not regulate in this way the hours during which liquor could be sold, the manner in which it could be sold, and the quality to be sold?

It must be confessed that it was a roseate scheme. To have no places of resort where liquor could be drunk; to allow only the best qualities of liquor to be sold, and those under careful supervision; to place the sale of intoxicants on a clean basis - all this was very satisfying in theory and might have been in practice had it not been for the inevitable entrance of the political game.

The Dispensary Bill became a law. It was heralded as a good thing, and Tillman became famous. A board of control was selected, dispensers were chosen, constables were provided to see that there should be proper enforcement of the law and that the state should absolutely control the sale. The dispensary came in with flying colors. From that day until the present time there has not been a single week of peace, actual repose of the body politic, in South Carolina.

At first Marlborough County, strongly prohibition, and which wanted no dispensary, along with several other counties was exempted from the enforcement of the law. Naturally, there were Tillmanites in those counties who felt it an imposition there should be nothing for them. Soon the prohibition counties were crowded against the wall and the dispensary was in full swing. Those places

which did not want a dispensary, had the dispensary crammed down their throats. It was a state dispensary, and it was meant to cover the whole state.

The pernicious practice of spying was begun. Constables were sent out to see that no liquor was being sold save at the dispensaries, and there came the trouble that might have been expected. The constables were neither wise nor good men. They were out to earn their money; they meant to find illicit liquor; they did find it, but their ungentle conduct made trouble. There were several killings which bore the earmarks of murder on the part of the constables, and there followed several pardonings and reinstatements as constables, which bore something of a resemblance to an official condonation and appreciation of homicide. Finally the indignation in several counties approached a white heat, and the sparks were soon flying.

On March 27, 1904, Governor Tillman, who had been with difficulty suppressing his fury at the non-enforcement of his stringent search orders, burst forth with a characteristic letter to the Mayor of Darlington, a prosperous city in the Pee-Dee section. He advanced the proposition that, "until the state board (of the dispensary) becomes satisfied that your police are enforcing the law, no part of the proceeds of the dispensary will be paid to your city." For it was part of the law that each place supporting a dispensary should share in the proceeds. Not alone Darlington, but Sumter and Florence, both in the Pee-Dee, were daily expecting trouble.

The following day, the chief spy, Gaillard, of the Tillman constabulary, put in his appearance in Darlington. Several Several public places were raided, without resist ance, though the crowd which gathered looked ominous. The report spread that three houses, private dwellings, were to be searched; that the whisky spies were at that moment moving on one house. Soon determined men were on the streets armed with rifles and shotguns, and the spies, scenting danger, returned to their hotel, expecting reinforcements on the morrow. An excited crowd of citizens went to the armory of the Darlington Guards and took possession of all of the arms, but later put them back. However,

a significant telegram was received by the captain of the Sumter Light Infantry, "Can you be depended upon to uphold the law? A mob is in possession of Darlington." Governor Tillman received an affirmative answer.

Next morning twelve Tillman constables, armed with rifles, arrived in Darlington. Shortly afterward they wired the governor for a Gatling gun and corps, and troops were brought in from Sumter and Florence. On the other hand, white men in sympathy with the people of Darlington were coming on every train, fully armed. A mass meeting was held in the courthouse, at which it was enthusiastically voted that any attempt to search private dwellings would be met with armed resistance. The crowd was not disorderly, but it was certain that only the withdrawal of the constabulary could avert bloodshed.

The next afternoon, March 30, the longdreaded clash came, and in the shape of a massacre, the cold-blooded nature of which surpassed anything for years in the history of the state. Just as it seemed that the danger had been finally escaped, and fourteen constables armed with Winchesters were at the railroad depot, five unarmed citizens were suddenly fired on, without reason and without warning. The firing lasted for five minutes, during which time armed men came to the assistance of the citizens; and when it was over four men were dead, several more were dying and others were more or less wounded. After the slaughter, the constables disappeared in the woods.

Something much more like the mob that had been described by Governor Tillman as in possession of the city, set out in pursuit, and the memorable Whisky War had begun. From end to end the state was in a tumult. Governor Tillman, in the executive chamber at Columbia, wired to every militia company to proceed to Darlington or to be in readiness. In Columbia the three companies refused to go, including his own Governor's Guards. In other places the orders from the Governor were ignored. Meanwhile men were leaving for Darlington on every train, and some were going there afoot. In Florence the local dispensary was entered in the night and totally wrecked, liquors to the value of $15,000 being destroyed.

If the constables had been caught on that memorable night there would have been no possibility of escaping a wholesale lynching. Happily the homicides Happily the homicides eluded such summary punishment, and there was no further bloodshed for the time. Next day Darlington was declared by Governor Tillman under martial law, and all the troops who could be persuaded to go to Darlington were hurriedly massed at the state capitol in readiness to move. "You who have sowed the wind have now reaped the whirlwind," was the comment of Tillman on the slaughter. He meant the Darlington people, but there were those in the state to whom the statement had more direct application: the men behind the passage of the dispensary law.

On April 2 Darlington had become an armed camp. The telegraph offices had been seized, and messages were censored with as much strictness as in Russia. The seizure of the telegraph was directed against the newspapers of the state, who were, with few exceptions, bitter in their denunciation of the Governor and his crew. Florence had likewise been invaded by state troops, and the whole Pee-Dee was under martial law. Several acts of violence that were clearly beyond the control of the leaders served to aggravate the troubles.

After lasting ten days the Whisky War, through the combined pressure of the more astute Tillmanites, the press of the state and of the country, and the federal government, came to an end. There have never since been any violations or threats of violations of the sanctity of the home up in the Pee-Dee, at the hands of the dispensary. But there have been many sporadic homicides growing out of the enforcement of the law, or which may be directly charged up against it.

It may be confidently said that the dispensary is now in its declining years. It was not defeated this year, as had been hoped; possibly it will endure two or three years longer. Tillman says that he will stump the state this summer in the defense of his institution. The natural question as to why it should need defense from its sponsor entails another explanation.

In twelve long years of patent corruption in the dispensary, Tillman would

never admit for a single moment that there was anything wrong in his pet institution. A suggestion, from an individual or a newspaper, to the prejudice of the dispensary, was sure to be met with a vituperative outburst from the senator. He was certain that the charges of fraud were unfounded.

During the past year a remarkable change has taken place. Foreseeing that the time had come when the misdoings of the dispensary could no longer be hidden, Tillman came to the front with a rather injured air, much like that of a man whose children have been caught at mischief, and who is in despair at having such wicked children. Knowing that there had been wholesale stealings in the dispensary, and that they were about to come to light, Tillman hastened to remark that he thought as much. At the recent investigation, conducted by a special committee authorized by the previous session of the legislature, when the searchlight was thrown upon the rottenness of the liquor traffic conducted by South Carolina, Senator Tillman intimated that the administration as a whole was bad, and needed a thorough reform. He did not admit that the system was wrong as a system. Properly conducted, so as not to embitter the public against it, the dispensary is just as effective as a political machine to-day as when it was established.

The recent investigation was conducted by a committee composed of seven members of the legislature. At least five of the seven were earnestly disposed to uncover whatever wrongdoing had been going on in the dispensary, and two of those five, Senator Christensen and Representative Lyon, have Jeromed the inquiry just as far as it was possible for them to go.

It was found that there had been rebates by the hundred; that public bids had been tampered with; that extortionate prices were paid for bottles, for labels, for the liquor and for everything that had been bought in the name and at the expense of the state; it was discovered that some of the dispensers had been guilty of actual theft from the state, and yet had been kept in the employ of the state. The investigation revealed just what every one who knew the conditions existing in the dispensary expected to be revealed;