George Cathey Shot to Death--A Good Fellow But for the Whiskey, Feb. 16, 1921

Asheville Times—After all is said, a great many people are going to hear of the shooting of George Cathey with a feeling of regret, and they will sorrow with the family. He was known to many as a good fellow, and he was—barring whiskey.

He was an uncommon man in some respects, but he was not an uncommonly bad man—save for whiskey. Being a man of parts he could have achieved something worthwhile in life—but for whiskey.

Perhaps it is too much to hope that the curtain has gone down on the final act in the long and sickening list of whiskey tragedies in Buncombe county. The chances are better than ever, we are persuaded, that we have drawn appreciably nearer the end of such tragic affairs, with their concomitant of sorrow and bloodshed.

At all events, the determination to achieve a far better enforcement of the laws, to supress the whiskey traffic in all its ramifications, will be greatly strengthened. People who have not thought much about it are going to be shocked into a realization of the deadly possibilities still inherent in the traffic.

From the Asheville Times as reprinted on the front page of the Hickory Daily Record, Feb. 16, 1921