The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-10-16
[FRoM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT
FLORENCE, s. c., October Is

FLORENCE, .. u, OcIouer 10.
Florence" in yesterday News says, or Ii
made to say of Florence, 'the colored popnla
ton are orderly and lazy, and cotton steal
ing measurably increased" l think " Fior
encer meant decreased Besides this, while oul
colored friends are more orderly they are mo-
so law. and therefore think 1t due to them
az well as 10 the encouragement OF increased
industry, to correct Florence"
While this is the cause, and we are having
more quiet and honesty, we are still having
some stealing and Florence" with the re
marks of the editor upon the outrages near
Kingstree, have moved me to communicate ar
occurrence or two, with suggestion for the
public good.
Just the other night, some cotton was ap-
pretended coming into Florence In violation
of a town ordinance. The parties thus VIC
lating law threatened the colored policemen
with arrest, and the township with indictment
The next night the officer who detected 1t was
attacked, and might have been severely beaten
but for the arrival of timely aid of law-abiding
citizens. The spite grew out Of the arrest OF
the cotton the night before.
Now, through The NEWS, which now exerts
greater influence throughout South Carolina
than any two journals in it, l want to make
suggestion which, think, will materially aid
by probably furnishing protection to agricultu-
raj industry.
Let all the people in every county of the
State-particularly the colored people, for they
ere the actual producers and sufferers sign
and send into the approaching Legislature pc
titions for the passage of law which will
prohibit and punish the selling and buying OF
stolen produce, and forbidding the sale of such
produce at night. Such petition may be sa
simple as this, that
Whereas, Honest labor and healthful indus
try have been greatly discouraged and para
lived by the ruinous depredations upon our
crops and stock, which are at once the fruit Of
our toll, the support Of our families, the source
of our maintenance, Of more prosperous culti-
walton of our soil, and the resources from
which alone our wealth and independence can
come: and, whereas, we have had thus far TO
pursue our tolls under the disheartening ap-
prehension that lawless marauders would reap
as much benefits from them as ourselves; and,
whereas, we have not had the protection OF
purchases as the felon who steals our substance
during the hours Of darkness:
Therefore, We, your petitioners, residents OF
-, in the county Of, do pray the en-
actment of a law for the greater protection Of
our crops and stock, and prohibiting their be-
ing bought or sold between 8 o'clock at night
and sunrise in the morning.
1t occurs to me, Messrs. Editors, that blank
petitions, embodying the above, or its sub
stance, should be printed and circulated ut
every postoffice In our State, for the signatures
of all our people and, as said before, particu-
larly of our colored and laboring people; for it
is the fruit of their toll that Is being
plundered, and they are the great sufferers.
feel assured large body-nearly all-of the
colored people of this section will sign If
commend this 10 une attention OF the Radl-
cal sheets, which seem so enthusiastic for the
protection OF the laboring classes.
Business is active; cotton is bringing good
prices, and money and THE NEWS circulate
pretty freely about here. PNEssiEY'
-FOUR correspondent "Florence" wrote that
demonstrating had decreased; Increased was
a typographical error.-ED. NEws.]