The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1880-05-06
Bates and his Crime.

a quiet enough man Wncn sOOer, OuI
dangerous and violent when drinking
Married ct eighteen, he is separated from
his wife month later. A boon compan-
ion is shot in a drunken brawl. Time
rolls on. Christmas eve comes and at q
dancing party, while under the influence
of liquor, he murders young man of his
acquaintance. This is the brief history
of VIM. S. Bates, who was executed at
BarnwelE on Friday 1t is the tale OF
drink drink drink from the sad be-
ginning to the awful ending. Whiskey
caused him to abandon his wife, whiskey
prevented him from having any honora-
Bile occupation, whiskey brought him to
the gallows. And there are hundreds of
young men who read this who will be
saved from the fate of Bates, if saved
they are, by the mercy of Providence,
not by anything they do to avoid or
avert it. They excite themselves with
whiskey as he did. They habitually
carry deadly weapons, as he did. They
have murderous impulses, as be had.
Why should they feel confident that
the paths which for others lead to
shame and death shall for them be the
ways to mere mirtllfulness and sport
Bates did not dream that he would end
his days upon the scafold. When sober
he was quiet enough. Liqour developed
the latent ferocity of his character, as it
arouses the lurking passions in every liv-
ing man and woman. At the beat times
it is difficult for many of US to preserve
the supremacy of heart and brain over
what seem to be animal instincts and brute
desires. To drink is to unloose what is
dangerous and bind fast what ia eleva-
ting and pure. Around Us in every direc-
ton, in this State and in adjoining States,
there are instances of ruin and death in
duced by tippling. Where blood is not
shed, more than blood is split, and the
soul is in bondage while the body is free.
For one man who like Bates kills an &C.
quaintance at a dance there are thous-
ands who murder what Is best in them
selves. They kill their young hopes,
destroy their talent, murder their fruitful
opportunities. And they will not be
warned in time. Each one thanks God |
that he is not as other men are, but it
needs not the eye of Deity to zee that,
sooner or later, his undoing will be as
theirs. There is nevertheless an awak-
ening of the moral sense in the people of
South Carolina on the subject of drinking
intoxicating liquors. The conviction and
execution Of Bates are the proof of it.
For the first time in our recollection, in
this State, drunkenness has not been re-
garded as an extenuation Of an offence.
To provide oneself with the instruments
of death and do that which will inevita-
bly, prompt their use is an aggravation OF
the crime.
The saddest phase of the Blackville
murder was the part played by some OF
the young women who were at the dance
where the murderous shot was fred. One
of them saw that Bates was drunk, re-
peated on the trial the curses and threats
which fell from hislips, and, while he was
in this condition, foul in body and soul,
consented to dance with him. Was there
none to save this young Carolina girl
from this reproachf Is not such tolera-
tion of drunkenness by our young women
an encouragement to tipplers to confirm
themselves in their debasing habits ?
Again we say, it is to the women of
South Carolina that the State must
look for aid. As long as they give the
tippler as much consideration as they
give to him who is always sober, the
most powerful means of suppressing in
temperance remains unused. Nay so
long as they place the drunkard on the
same plane with him who is resolutely
abstemious, they encourage drinking, and
are in some measure, responsible for its
far-reaching degradation and hydra-head.
ed sin l-Me,rs and Gourier.