The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1879-05-23


I have noticed that that is always the
way the unimportant important charac-
ter feels in all the novels and plays
Hd1per's Bazaar.
SOUTHERN REFORM.
Eugene Lawrence, in Harper's Weekly.l
The Southern political leaders who call an
extra session of Congress excite public atten-
ton of no favorable character, force them
selves into an unpleasant publicity, can have
OF they find tnei1
| the country they profess to represent become
| subjects of severe criticism. And what an
unfortunate retrospect do they bring up be-
| fore the people! The twenty or thirty Con-
federate Generals who would shake anew the
whole fabric of Government, the whole pros
perity of the nation, are as unlucky in the
present as in the past. They are destined to
| be beaten. Their careers are only the fore
| runners of misfortune to their own people
| and to themselves. The Southern States have
sunk rapidly even in relative importance.
They are surrounded by an immense chain of
| more liberal communities, full of vigorous
country from the Potomac to the Rio Grande
has been condemned by its political leaders
| to hopeless decay. Its reformers in 1865 6
that e' might gS Well lave Sse' given i anew a new
life; the Democrats from 1870 have left
their schools to languish, and only out
| u
perfectly; they begin to fear even their own
| depressed people, and sometimes dole out a
| scanty subsistence to the common school
gave to the Southern States system Of rail-
ways that might well have enriched and Gull
| tivated their waste or neglected lands; they
| When the Democrats came in power again,
they kept the railways, sometimes refused to
pay for them, and checked the progress of
the system. Under the Republican rule i'm
/ fura M
North and of Europe formed colonies in Ala
| bama or Louisiana; even Kentucky was in
vaded by some ardent Republicans, and vir-
ginia showed some trace of advance. Mas
sacre, insecurity, death, drove away the hon
est settlers, and after COushatta, Vicksburg,
the dark deeds OF Kentucky, no stream OF
| South. Labor and capital fly from the un-
quiet land. Since 1878 the only kind Of emf
grafton known there has been a destructive
one. Texas has drawn In a swarm of South
ern whites, who have gone thither from the
| more eastern States, only to find want, star
walton, disappointment; and the Mississippi
ing Northward. as they declare. from a new
The reformers introduced to the Southern
| speech, free suffrage. It need not be told
| how perfectly the Democratic leaders have
eradicated even the ideas. The period from
| never been wholly forgotten, taught to
Charleston and New Orleans the sanctity of
human.life, the necessity of reform, the bar.
| street tight, the supremacy of the law. For q
| time Republicanfsm and reform softened the
manners of the people, checked the progress
| lana and Mississippi, and dueling was dis
countenanced even in New Orleans. But
since 1870, and wherever the Democratic
practice of the past have been revived. The
duelist once more lifts his murderous front
even in the halls of Congress, and escapes un
in Atlanta and vicksburg. The barbarous
contempt for human life that marked the
days of slavery and isolation has nearly
to repeal every trace Of progress. There is
not q liberal newspaper in all Georgia.!a
State as populous as Switzerland. There is
the secret of open tyranny of its reac-
tionary Chiefs South Carolina has fallen into
the hands of its old oppressors, and the men
borders. The reactionary party has seized
upon the control of the South. knowledge
perishes, civilization rctrOgrades, the man.
A surveillance more rigid than that of Russia
over its Nihilists represses the progress of
the reformer. Free speech is forbidden. In
the party of revolution and disorder. 1t is
the silence before the storm.
This is the picture the Southern leaders
strange revolution they have caused. They
f1aunt their crimes even In Washington. The
duelist sends his challenge, and is not ex-
70 argument they reply by threats of vio-
lence: to reason they oppose the scorn OF
brutal insolence. We are to be ruled at the
Carolina. and the laws Of a great nation en-.
acted at the pistols mouth. "YOur money
or your life 70 Is the highwayman's cry. 1t Is
harangue in Congress. This peculiar mode
position in all the Free States. No large sec.
Confederate politicians as their leaders. or
go to the polls side by side with the noisy au-
tocrats of South Carolina. But still more
esRss Of sSs rule up
'hs psSPs wit .ns sse
laid waste by emigration, See their trade de-
cay, their population even decline, while the
savage politician rules them by force, checks
school, and exercises an espionage over the
opinions OF men more severe than that
of Russia in its mortal terror. France under
agent the Francois of the South have to fear
they are environed by free and active
press; they are exposed everywhere to a
most Secret retreats Of Violence and crime s
to- kemper County and to Caddo Parish.
Their conduct can no longer, as In the time
The accomplished correspondents tracks
them where he can not punish. The tele.
graph relates the latest encounter on the
streets, or paints the flight Of the pilgrims of
the Mississippi. Knowledge is slowly err
circling the Southern section. Reform fs
already invading it. Is it possible that it can
always be ruled by terror?
The measures of the reformers of 1850
have not been without their lasting effect.
The railroads they built, the school systems
they founded, the freedom they gave
to labor and intelligence. are are. the
they have !Ssss already
vigorous fruit. 1t Is stated that the number |
OF small farmers, white and colored, in the |
Southern States has greatly increased, that
intelligence has made considerable ad-
vances. that there Is q large party of |
thoughtful merchants, laborers, mechanics,
all the Industrious and frugal. Who see in the |
ly q prestige of their own ruin, who would |
gladly enter into any projects of reform. /
This class of the people naturally demands |
education and free speech, the liberal news |
paper, the advocates OF progress. They are |
not satisfied with the dead past of reaction /
and decay; they still hope to see their native |
land filled with the highest results of modern
cultivation. It Is said that in Texas there is |
q large German population often capable of /
checking the action of extremist, insisting |
upon the preservation Of good order and the |
supremacy of the law. East Tennessee
stands like beacon of loyalty. unconQuera-
BILE and unintimidated, the land of free
form. 1t is destined probably TO have alarge |
share in the regeneration of all its section. |
Il fs said that in Virginia there are hOnora-
BILE men who are ready ut . moment to take
the lead in the cause of popular progress;
that in all parts of the south tho men Of
blood and violence may soon be supplanted
by generation of the tolerant and humane.
{o TN H<Hvpt "A &pSApr piA1V