The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-11-08
BILL ARp,S LETTER.
Re aIve, Some Advice to the Legislature
atlanta Constitution.

atlanta Constitution.
The Legislature is in session. Most
of the members are politicians, of
course, and will keep an eye on their
own personal advantage, but we trust
they will Keep the other on the public
welfare. Tote fair, gentlemen, tote
fair with us. We want no fooling
around. Do your work and do it
quickly and go home. The people are
already burdened with taxation. The
plain truth is there are thousands who
can t pay their taxes. and the newspa-
pers will be full Of Sheriff sales.
Have mercy upon the people. You
will have more applications for all
sorts of appropriations, but [ wouldn't t
grant a single one outside of main
tanning the government on the most
economical basis. Wait until we re-
cover from the present distress. Some
things are needed very bad right now,
but we can't afford them. One thing
we ought to have above all others, if
we could afford it, and that is a re-
formatory prison with workshops and
other attachments for criminals under
sixteen years of age. What ere we to
do with the boys who are going to de-
struction A few years ago Mrs.
Lou Gordon visited Elmira, N. Y, to
see the reformatory there and she
wrote very interesting and instruct
i've letter about it. Two thousand
boys under sixteen working like he
roes in the shops at different trades,
and every few months a number dis
charged as reformed and good places
found for them among the farmers or
the mechanics. Boys of that tender
| age can be reformed, but not when
serving sentence in the changing
| with hardened criminals. We had
| that system in our Penitentiary. l
| remember we'll man who stole money
when only sixteen years old. He was
sent to the Penitentiary for four years
and learned trade. Four years of
| work painting wagons made him good
| artisan, and he stuck to it and kept a
good name and was respected. When
the war came on he was among the
first to volunteer. He joined.a Rome
| company and fell with his face to the
foe at the first battle Of Manassas.
| He used to tell me how kind the prin-
cipal keeper of the Penitentiary was
| to him and how he got new ideas of
life, and it's duties from that good
man and resolved to come out of there
reformed. That good man was DR..
Alexander, the father Of my friend,
DR.. Jim. That is the way to do it.
The boys want kind words. They
want friend. Most Of these young
| criminals have had hard life with no
friends to encourage them-perhaps
an incorporate father and a miserable
mother and poverty in the place called
home.
What can we do to stop the progress
of crime in our State :? 1t is increas-
ing in ratio every year-increasing
much faster than population-increas-
ing among rising generation. The
chief causes seems to be idleness and
the lack of parental restraint. ''Idle-
ness is the parent Of vice, SO said
Ben Franklin, and he knew, for he
liked to have turned out vagabond.
Work was all that saved him. The
most striking difference between the
parents of the present day and those
of fifty years ago is in the way they
control their children. In the olden
times children feared their parents,
but now the parents fear the children.
"Why don't you stop that boy OF
yours from smoking cigarettes p
'Because I can't. I have talked to
him and so has his mother, but it
don't do any good.''
Yes, talked to him. Fifty years ago
father would have taken that boy
behind the smokehouse and talked to
him with rod about three feet long.
There was no fooling around with the
boys. Obedience to parents was q
cardinal principle in the household:
I remember boy who got good
threshing for speaking disrespectfully
to his mother. He answered her back,
that was all, but his father heard it
and then his back answered for the
disrespect. The poor mother cried
and when the father had gone she rub
bed the marks with liniment, and that
was all. If Solomon didn know, who
did 2, He must have had several hum
dred boys to look after, and / reckon
he had an acre or two Of switches. If
a school teacher whips boy nowadays
he is threatened with prosecution and
big fuss is made over it in the news
papers, and the boy comes out mar
tyr and hero. When DR.. Jim and /
were boys we were afraid to let our
fathers know that we got whipping
at school. One day Jim Wilson ran
away from john Norton to keep from
whipping. Old Dr.. Wilson, the
preacher, found it out that night and
next morning marched Jim up to the
schoolhouse and he took his medicine
like little man. But I know some
preachers sons who need medicine,
but they don't get it anywhere. The
teachers end the fathers are afraid of
the boys.
We had frst-class Southern out
rage in our town the other day, and l
am surprised that it hasn't got in the
Northern papers. A negro boy Of six
teen was lynched right here in John
Anderson livery stable. John An
derson is one of our best citizens, but
he actually connived at this lynching.
The boy is a street vagabond and was
caught stealing the lunch out Of a
buggy that was left in the stable. He
had eaten up one from another buggy
and had begun on the second when
discovered. He was tied in stall
and his mother sent for. She weighs
about 200 pounds, and when she came
and learned of the trouble, she ex-
claimed, "Dar now, told you so, tank
de good Lord I dun got you dis time.
bin trying to git hold Of you for six
munts and you git away from me ebery
time. But I got you now, tank de
Lord" She asked for whip or cow
hide or something, but was given a
light buggy trace. She stripped him
in a posterior fashion and bent him
over cross bar, and those licks and