Richmond Democrat

DR. STAPP REPLIES TO HIS ASSAILANTS.
[Lexington Intelligencer.]

EDITOR Intelligencer: - The editors of the Post and Local Option Advocate are so indignant and so amused respectively that they devote considerable space in denunciation of myself, my character and antecedents, and not one line to disproving my statement, viz: That the druggists of Richmond would not dispense whisky upon the prescription of a physician. The fact that I have been a druggist and sold whisky, cuts no figure in the present controversy. I make no pretention to saintship, and when in the business I was neither better nor worse than the average druggist. During the time I was in business in Higginsville, I think Dr. C. W. Seeber was associated with me in the drug trade nearly three years, for four years that I was alone in the business Mr. Lewis T. Bell had exclusive control of the store. If the charges against me are true these gentlemen are equally guilty, but not one word is said against them. They stand high in social, business and religious circles, and the former is, I believe, one of the managers of the prohibition party. The managers or the Pharisaical bigots who edit or write for the above named papers, would no doubt have been extended equally to me had they not imagined I was antagonizing their interests, hence I am selected and attacked with all the malignance that a politico-religious crusade can engender. When I left Higginsville I had a patronage both in business and in my profession, composed of as good people as the community afforded. Will the authors of the articles alluded to deny this or account for it if the character they ascribe to me is correct? If I wanted to take a part in the local option fight it was my privilege to do so. Gentlemen from Virginia, Kentucky and Iowa are lending their assistance to the prohibition side, and no one question their right. But I had no such desire, my connection with the Lafayette county movement was accidental, and altogether unsought, as the following cards will prove:

MR HEAVENER.
I took the prescription of W. P. Sims to Richmond and was refused the whisky. When I returned the prescription I did not know that whisky could be obtained in any quantity in the county. I voted for local option at the late election H. W. HEAVENER.
Morton, Ray county, Mo., September 26, 1887.

MR. SIMS.
When Dr. Stapp's prescription was returned from Richmond without the whisky I was not aware that I could get it in the county. I went to Dr. Stapp's house and asked him to send to Lexington to procure it for me. His letter was written in my presence, and taken to the post-office before the election.
W. P. SIMS.
Sept. 26, 1887.

The above cards were both written by gentlemen who voted the local option ticket, and are well-known and reputable citizens. The fact that I sent to Capt. Lesueur has stirred up the wrath of the writers to such an extent that I will briefly notice this cause of complaint: There is but one man in Lexington with whom I am as well acquainted as Capt. Lesueur, viz: Judge J. W. Harrison, and I would as soon ask a favor of one as the other, but I have been reminded of the former fifty-two times a year ever since I came to this county, while Judge Harrison and myself exchange compliments but once yearly, in the form of checks and tax receipts, hence I did not think of him at the time. Another cause of complaint is, that I did not send to a druggist. I sent to the wholesale liquor dealer from the simple reason that I thought he would sell cheaper, but I was unknown to him, and so ordered through another. But still the question is asked, why I did not send to a gallon house. The cards of Messrs. Heavener and Sims answer that question. I will say however, that the Wood law had only been in force a few days, and it was not known in the country that dealers claimed the right to sell by the gallon until November 1, under their merchants' licenses. As both myself and patient lived a dozen miles from Richmond and half as far from Hardin, we were a little slow "catching on to the gallon racket." The Post man says I live within seven miles of Lexington, when in truth, I live double the distance, but when one wants to write a slanderous article this is as near the truth as it is necessary to come.
Now, as the prohibition organs of Ray and Lafayette counties have charged me with falsehood, I will reiterate my statement that the druggists of Richmond and of Ray county, will not let any one have a drop of brandy, whisky or wine on prescription of a physician. If such a law is desirable and the people of Lafayette county want it, let them vote it by all means.
I have no wish to take part in the fight, or to influence any man's vote, but let the issue be understood. In this county the prohibitionists claimed before the election that the Wood law did not apply to druggists, that it was aimed at saloons, and a learned D. D., the pastor of the church in which my family have membership, occupied the pulpit at Morton for an hour to convince the people that this was the only intention of the law. I don't charge the reverend doctor with trying to deceive any one. He was honestly mistaken. Yet there is as much reason for suspecting him of falsehood and deceit as there is for the Post and Advocate applying those epithets to me.
J. H. STAPP.