The Planters' banner. [volume] (Franklin, Attakapas Co., Lou.) 1849-1872, 1871-05-17
TIE BETTER LAND,
From the n. o. Times. |

m II; that horse thieves and murder rs
have occasionally been hung without war
rant of law; that disorganizers have, in
some rare instances been expelled from
communities outraged by their presence
granting that the ends and aims of Radical
ism have mt been accepted Us an infallible
faith everywhere throughout the South by
people the majority of whom are lamenta
bly, poor. aud all more or less ignorant.
strangely insensble to Puritonic doctrine,
and no less blindly than reprehensibly at
tached TO their own institutions, their own
ideas and their own misunderstanding
all this, and dipping the artistic brush into
the blood OF assassination, while lightning the
picture with the inccndiary torch, yet its re-
pulslVc hideousness is not So entirely ex-
!'ceptional that ii cannot be matched with a
companion picture painted beneath Nav
England skies, and in the midst of area
dian simplicity and sublimated virtue they
would have US believe distinguishes that
God-favored locality over every other on
earth.
We acknowledge the Southern people to
be rash, impctuou5, perhaps a trifle vim
dictive. we know them to be as poor in
privileges they are IN purse. and OPP
pressed with deep sense of wrong yet in
all the moral darkness. born from such a
condition; in all their manifestations of
cruelty yet cited. nowhere can be found
such a sIckening instance of moral and So
cal pe>ticnce-such foal blot upon the
race that just developed at Litchteld,
Connecticut, in the trial and conviction of
one Joel Perkins-a good Sunday school boy
in his day-for criminal intimacy with his
five daughters and the murder of their off
spring. But IT is not the crimes of the
beast we would would essay, in illustration
of our companion picture we will be more
just, if not more generous, than our North
ern friends, IN granting that isolated crimi-
nal deeds are no indication of the degrada
! tion of community; but we would call
| pointed attention to the fact disclosed upon
evidence that the people of Burrville, where
the monster, Perkins, resided, were
thoroughly aware of his incestuous habits
for six long years before he was brought
to trial. We grant that the South never
produced such an instance of Christian for
bearamce and that with us the whip or the
rope would have visited Perkins in six hours
after its discovery. But we lack that forti-
tude born of higher civilization, which
pertains exclusively in such instances, to
places like Burrvlle, and other favored spots
in New England. We suppose Burrville is
endowed with its school houses, it's churches,
its lyceum where Anna Dikinson may have
lectured that it sent its quota to the war,
takes the Independent, and admires Fred.
Doug lass; that it has its best society,
boasts of cultivated and refined tastes, an
yet tor six years it suffered this pestlentia
sore to rankle in its heart without rebuke.
Some good reason is demanded in explana-
ton of such criminal apathy; and 10, we
h4Ha Il Miiy:s it frSmtL mouth of very young man
to justice. When complimented Tor his
bravery, he replied: Il had no property to
burn up if the sccundrel got free again"
SO then, here we have that everlasting
touchstone of Yankee character-that great
balance in which everything is weighed,
worldly and heavenly. The good name of
their home, the cause Of righteousness itself
was as nothing to the people of Burrville in
comparison with tue danger of one or two
outhouses being fired.
Speaking from out the darkness of the be-
nighted South, we call attention to this re-
markable nicely of discrimination between
morality and means, while lamenting the
lack of that highee en!ig ghenment which
would enable us to appreciate such exem-
plary conduct as manifested in this case by
persons possessed of horror of the kuklux.
But we turn in disgust from Joel Perkins
to the pages of little book emanatiug from
Massachusetts, entitled The State Regis |
ter for 1862" In it we ind many neatly |
ruled columns of statistics concerning ropu
lation, and deving into their profundity we
draw thence Il few pertinent facts, illustra
tive OF q much sadder phase of social in |
tegrity in our Northern detractors. We
there discover the population ci Massachu-
setts in 1869 to be 100000 in e. hess of what
1T was in 1860, yet in the face of fhis in
crease. we find only sixty more births; and
of those the ratio of foreign stock is one
third in excess of the native stock. This |
tells its own story the inference can he
drawn by all. 1tpoints to criminal practi
ces of the most debased and degenerate |
character, pertinently enough expressed in
official comment. which says: lin all his
tory, sacred or profane, there is nothing |
like, excepting in the brief statement of St. |
Matthew concerning the Wholesale slaugh- |
ter of young Children by King Herod."
Figures cannot lie, and such s one subject
We can place upon our companion picture,
the glaring impicty of which speaks louder
iE disgrace of Massachusetts, than ever a
Webster or n Sumner thundered in her
glory. There she stands, inveghing against
the South in behalf of humanity, while her
birth -strangled babe rots in the recesses of
her chamber.
1t the picture is rot yet quite abhOrreDt
enough 20 prove fit carspanion for the
Southern tableaux, born of Kukluxsm. we
can yet find abundant material wberewith |
to hightenits effects, and have only to open
a late New York city paper. containing ac-
counts of the last murder, to obtain a fur
their insight into the high toned excellence
and exemplary rectitude of the people who
decry us. Only last week Mr.. Putnam
was killed by drunken ruflim who had in
suited lady in a street car When the
ruffian threatened Mr.. Put,am, who re-
buked him, the car was full of people, yet
no one took tue slightest interest in the
affair. but allowed the black-eu to reas
sault the young lady with ut interfering.
Wien. subsequently. he strack down MIR.
Putnam with Car hook. willie engaged in
handing an aged lady from the car, did
they interfere Let the following narra-
tive tell the story:
The conductor, who had witnessed the |
outrage at bis side. rang the bell. the Car
started on. and Madam Duva was left 10
the middle of the street with Ter. child and
her apparently lifeless friend. Subsequent
events appear almost incredible. Several
p rsons were attracted Immediately to the |
spot, and to them Madam Dual appealed |
for help. They did not render any ssSs-
tance. Madam Duval cried br the police |
so loudly and wildly that her dlnghter. WHO
was in the church almost block away. |
heard it and was alarmed by it, but no 20
lice came. Mr.. Putnam lay upon the down
RAILROAD track. and a gar heinz ranilly m. |