The Brookhaven leader., 1890-03-27
That Columbus women's(?)
Protest Again.

upon the Leaders article of last week,
THAT Columbus Women's
Protest" We here offer some words
10y way of explanation. At the time
our article was published, we had
never seen any of the names signed
to said protest. We had seen the
document itself as published in the
Clarion Ledger and Memphis daily,
and us matter of fact did not know at
that time that any names had ever
been published in connection with it ut
all. We believed that the article
WAS inspired and written by
some saloon politician of Columbus
who wished to veGt his spleen against
the W. e. T.. L. and Board of Trust
ces, aud who hoped to make the at
tack more affective 10y doing it in the
the name of the ladies. And 10y sal
loon politician we meau--not saloon
kecpcr-but one of those educated
gcnteel fellows who, while holding
himself above bar-keeping and prid.
ing himself on his Democracy hi:
white line Democracy, if you pleas,
sir didn't hesitate to make common
cause with the saloon keepers ant
negroes aud vote saloons on Colum.
bus against majority of the white
men and Democrats of that city and
Lowndes county. We still believe
the article owes its authorship to some
such source, and will be convinced OF
error only when some reputatablt
person, in a position to know, asserts
the contrary.
But authorship entirely aside, we
repeat that the ladies of the w. c. L
U. of Columbus or anywhere else
in Mississippi have never, in oul
Judgment, laid themselves any more
liable to the charge of going beyond
their sphere, than the signers of that
protest. In short, when those ladies
over their own names, publicly crit.
cised the action of the Board OF
Trustees concerning II public matter
they were estopped by that very
act from animadverting i'll tho
way they did upon their sisters
of the w. c. L. U. for the at
titude they have assumed touch
ing certain public matters. Sc
far as the Leader is concerned, il
does not condemn, but the rather
would commend these ladies and the
w. c. Il. L. both for taking all active
interest i'll public matters, so long as
they are consistent therein. A mem
Der of the Board of Trustees who
made the recent investigation informs
us that the w. c. L. U. and Prohibi-
ton had nothing under the sun to dc
with bringing about the College
troubles, and it was well known
anti PrOlibitiOnist who made the
charge of gross immortality against
Pres. Cooke on the floor of the House
and precipitated the investigation.
In this connection we may also be
permitted to say that if what is charg-
ed in that protest about "black-
books" reporting private converse
tons taken down in short hand, etc.
he trne-and we are not prepared to
deny it-every parent in Mississippi
who has daughter at the I. |. & G
should summon her home, the en-
tire faculty should be dismissed
and the College closed. To as
sert such things is one of the
strongest declarations that coulC
be made that President Cookies ad
ministration was Il failure, and the
only mistake the Board committed
if it made any ut all, was in not max.
ing clean sweep.
There was no intention on Oul
part to be discOurteous to the ladies
and our language did not ap.
proach in harshness to that applied
at various times by some of the afore
said saloon politicians and liquor pa
pers of Columbus and Meridian to the
ladies of the w. c. Il. T., who viii
at all times compare i'll true modesty
purity of character and lady-like de.
pertinent with any in the State.
In conclusion we wish to say that
we do not pose as fighting charac-
ter. We have no ambition in that di-
rection, and if We had, we are bound
by ties of honor which would forbid
its qualifications; but we generally
have plain way of stating the truth
as we see it, and if the doughty edi-
tor of the Meridian News, who per-
mitted the whisky men to outrageous
ly slur and SANDER the good women of
his own city in his own paper two
years ago, without a word of protest,
wishes to teach us lesson in ''cOurt-
esy" in the manner suggested, he will
always find us sat home" when he
calls, and any body else will do the
same.
~. S. E., Jr.," the Memphis Com
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