The age-herald., 1897-09-26
TECHNICS FROM
 CURRENT TOPICS

The time has arrived when public opinion must be aroused concerning ths alarming prevalence of the shotgun poli- cy which has stirred every portion of the south with great crimson splotehes of shame ard humiliation. Tn the hands of towards, drunkards and braggarts pistols have been fired in every south ern state, the noise of which awol1e echoes in every section and the flashes of which revealed dark and miserable stories of family distress, scandals which have eaten into the very hearts of noble. honorable families have been blazoned to an eager, gaping world in the light of a murdere's pistol. Guilty men have been shot down and innocent men have been murdered in every part of the south on the public streets and along country highways, and yet public sentiment slumbers. "The voice of the people is the voice of a God" is as true today as when said of old, and not un- til the minds of the southern people are awakened to the disgrace and shame of the many and frequent public murders which have been perpetrated in the name of justice, will the evil cease.
 A false sentiment which has been prevalent in the south for generations is largely responsible for the murderous record. which stands charged against the people. A man with a wrong to
 
 right takes the law into his own hands. wayIays his enemy and shoots him down wherever most convenient. A man who feels that his family honor has been assailed finds a 3S-calber Smith & Wesson the readfest means to even up the account. A man who objects to derogatory remak of an acquaintance wipss out the grudge in the blood Of that acquaintance; the man of objection able politics is consigned to eternal si- lence by the bullet from a pistol and so on through the long list of wrongs, real or imaginary. And the people of the south have grown so familiar with the dark, bloody record of shame, that they are beginning to treat each mur- der as an episode, which scracely star- ties community.
 
 disgraceful condition of affairs The people, the pulpit and the press must speak out in language that cannot be misunderstood; in language which will be heard in every court in the land, and needed by even the most careless judge or callous jury. Public sentiment has put period to duelling years ago, and public sentiment must say once and for q hat Ina bnf policy shall no longer regulate the mor- als of a family or a community. The last unfortunate killing at Tuskaloosa on Friday was only the same old way of regulating the manners of a man, who certainly had the right to select his asso- ciates without being shot down on the streets for exercising that privilege
 There are men in every community in the south who are haunted by the ghosts of murdered men who were kill ed in the heat of passion because of some offense triling and insignificant. When the sentiment of the south takes it's stand for law and order and against murders and murderers of every degree then. and not till then, will men cease to shoot down on the highways and streets every man who incurs their enmity or arouses their malignity
 
 The people of the south can never reach the grand destiny that awaits them until they cease to bye sentimental dsts Sentiment is one thing, sentiment ality is another and very different mlt- ter When southerners realize the fact that their family honor can better be protected by heroic silence than an- nouncing to the world with the deadly neport of pistol, all the agony they are enduring, it will be far better for those who suffer. There are better means fer netting out justice to misefa- bJe creatures who invade the homes of @ people than by murder that sets the whole world talking. There should be no need of the protection of a pistol for a woman's honor. Tine purity and up- rightness of woman's life are gria.er safeguards than battery of guns. If a woman is mentally unbalanced the law will see that she is protected; if she is not, she is perfectly able to demand from men that respect that shields her from all overtures and fndignities.
 The sentimentaIity of the people finds its way into every phase of life, political or otherwise. We talk and preach honesty and sentimentality at the same time. Many of the gravest sins that blot the political history of the state were indirectly and uneonseiously encouraged by sentimentality that feeling that for bade inquiry into an officials career A man who accepts office at the hands of a people---who has importuned them for official position--owes it to those peo- ple that the affairs of his office shall at all times be ready for the inspection of the authorities. Many an. honest man has suffered for the misdoings Of trus ed relatives, but every man is responsible for the men into whose hamds he gives the keeping of public concerns. And be- ing responsible ha must accept that criticism and investigation which are h,s due,