The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1895-08-06
ARE WE A NATION OF LIARS 2
BILL ARP is WORRIED OVER
THE MATTER.

THE MATTER
The Southern Confederacy, Sandwich
Islands and Cuba are UnsettIe,
Questions-SiIver Coinage and tn
Bicycle Craze.
1t takes long time for big things t.
settle down so that we may get tn
truth and the facts. | was ruminatin,
about this In co hection with the grea
battle of Manassas that was Tough
thirty-four years ago last Sunday
This is one time that tho day of til,
week and the day of the month CORES
pond with the anniversary of that bat
tie. Thirty-four years have passed
and this generation is just beginning
to understand what the war was about
Northern histories have been SO par
tial and one-sided that the young folk.
have been surprised and astonishet
that our people fought so hard and 81
long with so little to fight for. But
the truth Is gradually dawning upon
the nation. Southern histories have
been written and introduced into
Southern schools and our children are
becoming our defenders. / see that
Mrs. Susan Pendleton Lee, the gifted
daughter of General Pendleton, has
written u history of the United States,
and has without reserve told the story
VI ehS iuGS CIFl WdT, anu IllS u OulUeCl
Confederate Veterans, in their great
meeting at Houston, have as fearlessly
indorsed it. In a few.years more the
South will be vindicated, but it takes
long time. Eighty years have passed
since Napoleon figured in Europe and
even now historians differ widely about
| events and motives concerning him.
Marshal Ney was shot i'm 1915 Or he
died in North Carolina in 1919, nobody
knows which.
For several years we have been wait
ing for the truth about tho Hawaiian
Islands, but it has not yet been written
from q non partisan standpoint. Con-
servative people don't know what to
believe. The missionaries used to tell
us that the Sandwich islanders were
cannibals fifty years ago, but had all
become Christians and had schools and
churches like we have. Later accounts
say that political schemers and un-
priucipled scoundrels from our country
have plundered that unhappy laud and
reduced those natives to bUggars and
subjection. And now we read that an
other set are arming vessels TO drive
the first set out under pretcnse OF help-
ing the native. | wonder what arc the
facts in the case? -
And what about Cuba Who knows?
The prevailing idea is that Spain is
tyrant and has got those Cubans by
the throat and they want to govern
themselves and set up IL republican
form OF government like ours. But u
knowing man, who has been there,
told me that those Cubans were mostly
hegroes of the most degraded kind and
were not lit to govern themselves and
all this rumpus was being raised by IL
few filibustering Americans, who want
to capture the island and divide out
the offices and get rich off the sugar
plar that the Spaniards are cul-
tivating. There was u biglfuss raised
an editor whom the Spaniards had
confined in Moro castle, but Homer
Reed says he found out the other day
that the editor was Il coal black coon
who had been very scandalous in his
paper. And so the question comes uD,
lis Cuba worth helping ~
David wrote, / aid in mine haste
all men are liars, and the old Scotch
preacher took that lUr his text and re-
marked: "Ah, David, David, if yo had
lived till now We might have said it at
your leisure, me mon"
Are we nation of liars ? Read the
believe? While | was Ia Florida the
other day [ read from The New York
Recorder an awful account about Ia
wares being attacked by rattesnakcs
and the people had to turn out with
guns and rocks and thrash poles and
they KILLED over 400 in the streets one
Sunday morning ana in two days had
killed over q thousand and the people
were terror-stricken. The article
went into many details aud told about
woman who put her infant child in
tub while she was washing in another
tub, and big rattler got his head over
the edge Of the tub and she had to kill
him with a battling stick. [ asked u
Tavares man man about it and he was
amazed. Why" said he, it is Il lie
"a lie without any foundation. Some
lying reporter made it up for Il sensa-
tion." And not long after | read that
there was yellow fever in Tampa and
the people were flying from the city.
| was in Tampa that very day and
knew 1t was lie. OF course the pa
per took it all back the next day and
said it was u mistake, but there is no
telling the damage that such mistakes
do. Ii a reporter who is running
around for news gets up lie for II sea-
sation be should be turned oil nstan-
ter.
And here is the silver question that
has been the subject of more exagger-
alton Than will ever be forgiven IN the
day Of Judgment more elimination
and slanoer and suppression of the
truth. And nothing is yet settled
about it. Who knows what is best =?
When we see such statesmen as Nor
gan and Vest and Harris and Daniel
and George and Black burn and Crisp
and Black and McLaurin ana Il host OF
others on one side and as many nota-