The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1894-05-10
4 BASE SLANDER
ON THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF
SOUTH CAROLINA.

Tho Kind or Stun that Is Publlshed by
Somc of tho Northern Papers About
The People of tho sou,h-Nothing But
Lies.
New YORK, May 5.-When the av-
that Governor Tillman's political
strength in South Carolina comes
mainly from the farming population,
who are PopulIsts, he Thinks of the
Populist party in that State as being
| composed OF such honest, slo N, hard.
working, saving, church-going, sidehill
| farmers as makes up the strength of
the Republican party in the central,
| Northern and Western part of this
State. This Is mistake. The Pal
metto State countryman bears about
this region as a highWayman does to a
peddler. The horny handed son of toll
as portrayed in the Sunday school
books Of generation back doesn't
exist in South Carolina. The man who
ILLS his place there is called a cracker.
After you have heard a South Carroll.
ntan say that word "cracker" with the
peculiar intonation invariably given to
IL, you will realize that it Is by no
means synonymous with honest far
mer.
A gentleman who has lived in South
Carolina for fifteen years, during which
time he has kept eyes and ears very
wide open, told o Sun reporter, few
days ago, some things about the crack
ers, the origin, ways, and the signili-
caDce OF the situation In reference to
| them.
"It ought to be generally known, and
| don't think it is" said he, "that the
Populist party in South Carolina does
not include, as 1t does, / am told, in
soma States. the good country farming
| element. The fact Is we haven't enough
OF the good farming element to make q
| showing on. We have class OF people
| who own what were once farms, but
they don't deserve the name of farm
ers. They're the crackers. There is
something more than ignorance and
uncleanliness, and lax morality in the
real cracker. There's deep seated dev.
| lltshness, a natural love for liquOr, and
a & eat aptitude for murder and other
crimes. The cracker hasn't evolved
these things out of his own inner con-
seriousness; he's come by them honestly
If cracker ever does come by any
thing honestly oy nereuity. He has a
line lot OF ancestors back Of him.
"Entse ancestors are Of two kinds
You Can tAkr your pick ;!here's mighty
little choice between 'em. If you 90
back some centuries in your history
you will nud that at one time he Carib
bean Sea was 80 infested with pirates
t"at some of Il couD,ries having an
interest In the New World decided to
out of the sea and drove them N"rlh.
| The pirates landed and pushed up
| through the country, finally settling
down to lives Of something rather
| worse than usefulness Enere Is the
germ or the cracker, or at least, one of
the germs. Now for the other part.
When the English settled in South
| Carolina they were, in the language Of
today, too strong to work. But the
work had to be done, so they imported
slaves from ngland--convicts for va
riOus crimes, who were to serve out
their terms as slaves on the plantations.
Some died IN the process; Others served
| out, became free, and having nOthiDg
to do, settled. There's your other germ.
Unite the two, and you have the crack.
er in his first stage.
"EOW and where he lived for some
generations thereafter isn't clear-ur
why, for that matter. But, he did live,
probably by hunting and doing odd jobs
and he became known as poor white
trash Even the niggers looked down
on the poor whites and up to the time
OF the war he was the most despised in
dividual in the country, aud the most
worthless. The blood of the pirate and
the criminal was still there, unmixed
with any better strain, for none but
poor white would marry with poor
white. But it was weakened and
thinned by laZiness and tnaction and
drink and lack OF opportunity. Then
came tbs war, and a change for the
poor white. No longer having slaves to
work their farms and plantations for
them, the B0urbons, as the good fami-
lies were called, drifted away from their
country places to the towns. They
could not soil their hands with spade or
| plough, and as their only other resort
| they went into business. Mark the re
suit. Tho farms fell into the hands of
the poor whites, being first divided up
into small portions.
There you have your poor white be.
coming land owner. You might sun.
pose that he would develop honesty and
thrift and ambition to improve his op-
portunities to become decent cltiz en-.
lie doesn't. The pirate and criminal
strain Is IN him. emasculated by gene.
ratlon3 OF contempt and degradation,
but still there, aud now 1T begins to
show itself. Your cracker makes his
wife and children work the farm while
he hunts or fishes at such times as he
isn't too lazy. When he gets money he
goes for moonshlne whiskey and gets
It,. Why, tho North Carolina m oon.
sinners run their blockade wagons for
tho crackers. That's where they sell
their moonshino, and they run the gov
ernment blockade and Tillman's block
ado to DO 1t. And when the crackor
gets full OF whlskey he Isn't poor white
trash any moro. lie goes right back
two or three centuries and bpcomrs
that mixture Of pirate and English
convict, aud a mnrderous, treacherous,
tOul brute no is. Every cracker Car.
! rirs his gun and II knife back of him.
He uses the gun first but the knife Is
his favorite. That's the pirate in him.
Jackknife slashrrs, we call 'en. Pve
seen two OF thcm after knife fight,
nd-wcll, 1t WAS worth going miles
not to SEQ
"If necessary the cracker will stand
up and fight face to fl"e, Most Of 'em
are dead shots, for IN have lots of