The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1893-11-08
PUBLIC HANGINGS.
Arps Says Executions Should Be Carried
Out Priyately-He Gives Some Advice
to the Legislature on Needed He.
forms-Discusses Other Matters.
atlanta Constitution.

atlanta Constitution
The Legislature is in session. Mos
of che members are politicians, ofcourse
and will keep an eye on their own per
sonal 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 YOU
work and do it quickly and go home
The people are already burdened will
taxation. The plain truth is there are
thousands who can't pay their taxes
and the newspapers will be full O
sheriff sales. Have mercy upon the
people. You will have more applica.
tions for all sorts of appropriations, but
wouldn't grant a single one outside
Of maintaining the government on the
most economical basis. Wait until we
recover 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 refor.
matory prison with workshops and
other attachments for criminals under
sixteen years of age. What are we to
do with the boys who are going to de-
struction? A few years ago Mrs. Lou
Gordon visited Elmira, y. Y, to see
the reformatory there and she wrote a
very interesting and instructive letter
about it. Two thousand boys under
sixteen working like heroes in the
shops at different trades, and every
few months a number discharged as
reformed and good places found for
them among the farmers or the me-
chanics. Boys of that tender age can
be reformed, but no. when serving a
sentence in the chaingang with bard
ened criminals. We had that system
in our old penitentiary. 7 remember
we'll a man who stole some money
when only sixteen years old. He was
sent to the peuitentiary for four years
and learned a trade. Four years of
work painting wagons made him a
good artisan, and he stuck TO it and
kept 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 Manas-
sas. He used to tell me how kind the
principal keeper of the penitentiary
was to him and how he got new ideas
of life, and its 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 a friend.
Most of these young criminals have
had hard life with no friends to en-
courage them-perhaps an intemperate
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 increasing
in ratio every year-increasing much
faster than population-increasing
among a rising generation. The chief
causes seem to be idleness and the lack
of parental restraint. "Idleness is the
parent Of vice." so said Ben Franklin,
and he knew, for be liked to have
turned out a vagaboud. 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 chill
dren. In the olden times children
feared their parents, but now the par
ents fear the children. "Why don't
you stop that boy of yours from smok-
ing cigarettes" "Because T can't. I
have talked to him and so has bis
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 a rod about three feet long.
There was no fooling around with the
boys. Obedience to parents was q
cardinal principle in the household. ]
remember boy who got good thresh'
ing for speaking dissespectfully to his
mother. He answered her back; that
was all, but his father heard it and
then his back answered for the dis.
respect. The poor mother cried and
when the father had gone she rubbed
the marks with liniment, and that was
all. If Solomon dident know, who
did? He must have had several hun.
dreG boys to look after, and reckon
he had an acre of two of switches.
If school teacher whips boy now.
adays he is threatened with prosecu.
tion and q big fuss is made over it ir
the newspapers, and the boy comes out
a martyr and a hero. When DR.. jim
and I were boys we were afraid to lei
our fathers know that we got whip
ping at school. One day Jim Wilson
ran away from John Norton to keer
from a whipping. Old DR.. Wilson, tht
preacher, found it out that night ant
next morning marched Jim up to tht
schoolhouse and ne took his medicine
like little man. But know some
preachers sons who need medicine, bu
they don't get it anywhere. Th'
teachers and the fathers are afraid o
the boys.
We had first-class Southern outrag
in our town the other day, and I an
surprised that it hasent got in th
Northern papers. A negro boy of six
teen was lynched right here in Johl
Anderson's livery stable. John Ander
son is one of our best citizens, but b.