The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1891-09-24
nae old Lament WIth the old sons.

The bloody fictions which have ap.
peared from time to time in the North
ern press respecting the South, if
written with any conviction of their
truth, betrays as dense an ignorance
OF the real conditions OF life with us
as would a history Of the Ozark Con-
tinent" by one who had no more
knowledge OF that benighted land than
would be conveyed to him by merely
tracing its outlines upon the map, The
"bloody shirt" organs have exclusively
engaged in this disreputable business,
and when they were short of filling"
for their hungry columns, they invari-
ably REQUIRED to the neyer-failing, ex-
haustless theme of Southern barbarism
and degradation. Of late they have
been Of sheer necessity, so engrossed
with recitals of the disturbances,
strikes, riots, arsons, rapes, assassina-
tions and murders occurring in the
very sacred shrines OF their own SUI
perior morality that they were COM
PEELED, for the time being, to relin-
quish their doleful tales and fearful
moralizings respecting disorders in the
South. We had hoped that the grist
was out, and the dark and turbid
waters that had turned the mill so
long and were on their way to oblivion's
deep, would not be turned from their
channels and brought back, by some
EVIL reversal of natures law, to do
over again their dirty work. But a
lengthy editorial leader in a recent
issue of the New York Mail and Elk.
press, entitled "Tennessee's Degrade
tion," at one fell stroke "rudely and
ruthlessly' brushes "the fair and
beautiful flower of this fond and radi
ant hope"
The fierce diatribe of this paper
grows out of its "holy horror" of Ten
nessee's convict lease system and o.
the outrage upon the instincts Of oul
common humanity of which the Legis
lature is guilty, in refusing to annul it
1t intimates that our laws are Sc
silent or badly constructed that thu
State is helpless in case of organized
defiance of law, and that the Governo,
is not clothed with the power to ust
the State troops in suppressing insur
rections and outrages Ii this be tru,
what are the State troops for? The,
are not certainly mere ornamental ap
pendages of Gubernatorial pomp Il
engage in sham battles for the enter
tainment of the communicating CHIEF
nor to serve him as a glittering retinu
in his proud march under triumpha
arches. If the Mail and EXPIRES
knew what it was talking about, an,
it certainly ought to, it should hav
stated frankly and candidly tina
Governor Buchanan, at the breakin
out Of the Coal Greek troubles, prompt
y sent troops to quell them, and tina
an open conflict with the free miner
was averted by the interposition {
prudent counsellors, who brough
> about an arrangement which pacific
, the turbulent and the troops wer
, withdrawn. Now according to tn
D statement Of the Mail and EXPIRES
: Gov. Buchanan transcribed his power
! and would have been responsible fC
" the bloodshed had conflict ensueO
i, In this state when organized Law
lessness becomes so powerful tn;
!. officers of the law, with all the hel
= they can command, are not able
suppress it, then it is the bounde
duty OF the Governor to employ I'll
military to accomplish it. This I'll
Governor did, in the Coal Greek cat
! though in sympathy with the fire.
miners as long as they did not reso
3 to violence to carry their point. 1t
:. true that the miners were induced
f abandon their belligerent attitude
f await the action Of the extra sessio
4 it is true that the Legislature refuse
I enormously as we believe, to abroga
: the lease contract, but we are equal
sure that some plan will yet be d
yised to bring us out of all this turmC
! and perplexity, which will be sati
d factory to the free miners and the
Is hosts of sympathizing friends, al
2 still maintain the honor and credit
e the State If the Mail and Expire
u can afford to withdraw for q lit
y while its philanthropic attentions
= the helpless woes of distant Sta
and contemplate the sad conditions
honest labor right under its own ey
: it will find huge monsters of wror
e and injustice-the crowded prisons
/, Sing Sing aud Auburn mammoth i