Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1893-05-18
Can't vs.. Jervey.

Richardson were holding their in
dignation howl in Columbia, Mr..
Jervey pranced to the front, and
nearly lifted the rafters from the
court house with his ilnbittered
eloquence. He squi1ted a ten-inch
stream of gall and venom at Gov
ernor Tillman, and pleaded and
raved for just one opportunsty to
get at those Barnwell lynchers
and Ben Tillman's scalp. That
Denmark rapist was depicted as
martyr, and the Governor of
our State a demon incarnate.
The negroes present were en-
tranccd with Jervey's harrangue,
and spiked it with such ejaculation
as. ."Dat's de Gospel trufe; !" "Now
you'se shouting boss;;" "Bless dat
ar man he's a honey" and other
terms of appreciation, Our i'm
preston was that were Jervey only
given the ropes in that latitude,
he'd fasten ball and chain to the
leg of Gavernor Tillman, and have
the legislature pass a law making
it a peuitentiary offense for any
one to even confess that such
an offense as'rape is possible.
In the meantime, evidence
began to strengthen around that
mulatto martyr(?), and it was
soon settled beyond doubt that
Peterson was guilty of the heinous
crime for which he paid the:
penalty with his life. And as this
evidence began to strengthen, the
politicians who participated in
that indignation howl got sicker
and sicker. The idea of white
men getting together with a mob
of negroes and weeping and
wailing and gnashing their teeth
over the merited fate of such a
brutal scoudred as Peterson,
was more than the stomach of a
Southern white man could stand.
The leading howlers at once re.
lapsed into a state of innocuous
deseutude; and Jervey had just
comfortably crawled into the bot
tom of a hole and was about to
pull it in after him, when Gov
ernoi Tillman caught that Charles
ton. Solicitor by the nape of his
neck and::yanked him to the sur
face of this earth agaia, with
authority and orders to get to
work instanter and prosecute those
lynchers to the full extent of the
law, and he could give to the grand
Jury a bill of indmeut against the
Governor if he thought proper
Now, this was the golden oppor-
tunity that Jervey had 80 piteous-
ly pleaded for a few nights before.
when he SO electrified that crowd
of blacks with his eloquence; and
and it was the general impression
that he would shuck his coat and
wade in. But shooting off your
jaw and practlcing what you preach
are two widely different avocations.
Had Governor Tlllman tied a
pound of pecac to a hand-spike and
rammed it down poor Jervry's
throat, he would not have been
any sicker than when he received
that answer to his Columbia prayer.
Jervey was no longer encouraged
by those applauding words, "Now
you Sc shouting, honey The more
he read the Governors letter the
smaller he grew, until the Solicitor
felt like he could crawl though the
eye Of a needle or skin cat on the
bill of a mosquito. There is a
bro d chasm between CAB and
duty. To crate through his Derby
in Columbia, and tackle those
Barnwell lynchers, were two en-
tirely separate and distinct
avocations. So Jervey begins to
crawfsh, and back out. Since he
came to think over the matter, the
Solicitor had lost all relish to visit
Barnwelll for the ties that bound
him to Charleston were too strong
to be rudely broken. And then
again, suppose those lynchers
should take a a notion to keep
their hand in practice by ex-
perimenting on the chief o ator
at that Columbia howl? No; it
would never do to come within lasso
distance of Denmark. In fact, he
had grave doubts obout his ability
to do justice to the occasion, and
therefore begged to be excused.
And here ends the farce, 60 far