The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1893-11-22
WE HAVE NO GULLY"
Bill Arp Takes Exceptions re- Pages Article
In the Forum About the Southern
BulIy''-There is No Such Char
acter as the Author Describes
In This Sectional Defense
OF the South.
1Atlanta Constitution I

Alldula t'OlSLltu LlOu.
The Forum is most excellent maya
zine. 1t has ever been fair and libera
in sentiment towards the South. 1t j:
medium for advanced thought, {
conservative educator, and is alway!
welcome at my firesde. But confess
that I am not pleased with the EDITORS
article on the ''Southern Bully" in the
November number. Indeed, / did not
know that we had such professional
institution in all our borders, and Mr.
Pages twelve pages of philosophical
aDathema against him have failed tc
convince me of his existence or of oul
danger from his lawless conduct.
Distance does not always lend en-
chantment to the view. If Mr.. Page
lived here in Gainesville he would be
soon surprised to find that the bully
was not in these parts but was, perhaps,
little lower down where the mosqui-
toes aggravate a man or some toul
malaria polsons his liver and disturbs
his serenity. When I was boy study
ing my first geography, I found there
a picture of a heather Chinee carrying
on pole long string Of rats for sale,
and so for forty years believed that
rats was the Chinaman's national food.
Indeed, I was disappointed when I
learnee that they did not eat rats. I
had hsiieved it so long WANTED to con-
t!nue in the faith. In the same book
there was picture ofa scene in Florida.
It was dark, shiny lagoon surrounded
! by tangled growth Of trees aud vines
covered with long moss, venomous
snakes hung from the branchesI greedy
vultures perched in the treetops and
wide-mouthed alligators were summing
themselves upon the logs. That hide
Gus vision of Florida lasted Inc for
years.
Just so some OF our Northren breth-
ren have grown up with an idea that
| the South used to be full ofdesperadoes,
and is even now spotted with bullies
who are clinging to barbarisEn and
brutality. They want to continue in
| that faith.
Mr.. Page says "the bully is an old
acquaintance to those who know South
| ern life. He had much to do with the
war, the penalty of which other men
who had nothing to do with it, had to
pay with his oaths and his honor; be
has rItted through ali the quiet ways
of Southern life calling himself the
South and he leads mobs to avenge
'our women 1t has been left for
commerce by infusing its influence into
the body of local. public sentiment in
the South to rid us at last of this histo-
ric red-handed, deformed and swagger-
| ing villain"
Well, I am glad he has gone, if he
was ever here, for he Must have been
an awful bad man. Strange I did not
come across him in my youth-stranger
still that in the induction of the war
''minima pass fui" I did not recognize
him and now in my old age I do not
see him with bis last hold upon the
throat Of law and order. It seems to
me that Mr.. Page has set up the ten
pins just to have the fun of knocking
them down again.
If he means that those who voted for
secession were the bullies. than I plead
guilty along with many of our noblest
Christian gentlemen, such as Howell
| Cobb and Tom Cobb and Joe Brown
and General Evans and Colquitt and
Gordon and Nisbett and host of
others whom the people of Georgia
have delighted to honor. Surely he is
not making fling at these men. The
right to secede has long ago been set.
| tied, settled when the North did not
dare to try Mr.. Davis for treason, their
greatest lawyers declaring that he could
not be legally convicted. The South
seceded-that was all. 1t was the North
that made war about it. Then who
does he mean by the bully who had
| much to do with the war? Maybe be
| means the common soldiers, the high
privates, the "hoi polloi" who mainly
did The fighting, No, he cannot mean
them, for they were patriots. Patriot
ism was their only motive for they
owned 10 negroes whose slavery was in
peril. And besides red-handed, swag-
gering villains do not fight. They are
towards. l remember but two or three
town bullies ia Rome when we were
making up our companies, but they
dident Join US. They lodged the war.
They had no influence in bringing it
on and took no perilous part in the
conflict. They never do.
Who the bullies are that now have
their "iast hold" as Mr.. Page says, we
are at loss to know.
If be means the lynchers, we must
defend them from everything but
lynching. They are neitherred- banded,
deformed or staggering. They are
not villains. They do not "pretend to
the traditions of the old Southern gen.
tleman." They are not class. They
are community. You cannot 60 into
any town or settlement and pick them
out and say this man will be a lyncher
when the horrible crime is committed.
Mr.. Page processes the highest re-
spect for Bishop Haygood, as every
body does who knows him, and yet
does not seem to respect his assertion
that "the Southern people are not cruel
aud never were. They are a kind
hearted people; good to one another
and to all men. They are kind to
dumb brutes. Whatever may be true
or false about them, they We're never
cruel hearted. They were kind to the
negroes when they were slaves-they
are kind to them now."
If this be true then where are the
bullies that these sweeping reproaches
are hurled at, for it was this same kind.
hearted class of people who burned the
negro at Paris; the same kind who
slew the negro rapist at Port Jervis, in
New York; the same kind that have
avenged the purity Of woman in Hi.
nois and Michigan. The same red
handed, staggering villains. The only
difference between the North and the
South is that the female victims here
are hundreds to every single ope at the
North. Over 500 have been recorded
within twelve months. The human
nature that prompts the lynching il
the same everywhere-everywhert
where the innocence and virture o
!. woman is respected, and let me ado
J the greater the respect the more speedy
and terrible the punishment. Blshol
Haygood says 1.-The South has Away
been peculiarly jealous of its women
MIR. Page throws sneer at this whel
be says it is theswaggering villain wh'
> struts around and leads mobs to aveng
"our women.' Perhaps be is not awar
that the marriage relation is mucl
more sacred at the South than at tn
North, especially among our commo,
people, who have not much else to liv