The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1898-06-23
THANKS TO THE POST.
Again it Shows a National and Liberal
Spirit.
(Norfolk Virginian and Pilot

(NOr1Olk A1rglDldn and L llOt
We have repeatedly commended
the national and liberal spirit of the
Washington Post, and in nothing
does it exhibit this spirit more en-
phatically, nor with more good effect,
than in its stern rebuke of that mar
row and sectional spite, in any quar-
ter, which makes refuge of lies for
malice and uses piety and charity as
pertexts for SANDER and uncharitab BILE
ness. Our readers will recollect that
we called their attention some time
ago to the base and cruel aspersions
cast upon the poor white women and
girls of Southern cities by report Of
the American Tract Society, which
proposed to send q mission of succor
and reform the women and girls of
the South, Newbern, n. c., being sug-
gested as an urgent point at which to
begin the great work. OF course the
whole tract report consisted in lies,
founded in lies, and if it were not all
sheer invention under which to
swindle the good and generous out of
their money, it was gross and I'M
pardonable attack upon a class of
virtuous women and girls, noted for
industry and exemplary lives, and an
inexcusable exaggeration of a vice in
the South which exists in all cities,-
nowhere more SO than at the North,
and nowhere less than at the South.
But we need not repeat the rebuke
we administered to the Tract Society
when we first noted its dstardly
libel; and we recall the matter to
note how the Washington Post treats
it from its national standpoint. The
"a Shameful SANDER" and after
quoting the Memphis appeal to the
effect that the Tract report is "a vii
famous libel" it says:
what sort of management this
society has that renders possible the
publication under it's imprint of so
scandalous an assault as that upon
the people of the South, we cannot
imagine. If the women of the poor
white families in the South were such
creatures as this calumniator de-
scribes, the fact would be disgrace
full to the people in general in that
section. The Knoxville Tribune I'M
dertakes to explain how the society
came to perpetrate such crime.
That paper says the society has
''strolling agents in the South, some
of whom are villainous old dead
beats and INSCRIPTIONS liars, who
make the most slanderous reports of
the awful condition of Immortality,
ignorance, and degradation of the
masses of the Southern people. They
make these reports in order to show
the necessity of their employment
and to pose as missionaries, and on
their representations the reports of
the American Tract Society are made.
1t is charitable to presume that it is
the ignorance and not desire to
deliberately SANDER the women of
the South that leads the Society to
make such reports.'' The Norfolk
VWginian and Pilot asserts, among
other things equally pointed, that
''there is not any class at the North
which SO prizes chastity and clings
to it through all vicissitudes as the
poor women and girls of our South
ern cities, thus subjected to the
vilest ISLANDERS of a nasty and lying
organization of loathsome hypo-
critics.
After citing further comment from
the Southern press, the Post concludes
its noble article thus:
at is not to be wondered atGthat
these and other Southern papers re-
sent such shameful SANDERS and re-
pei them in vigorous terms. We
hope it will turn out that no respon-
sible official of the society saw the
abominable stuff before it was print
ed and put in circulation. True, that
would show careless management,
but such an error would be more
pardonable than the deliberate and
intentional utterance of base IL
bel.
1--WE hope, too, and the public,
North and South, has a right to ex-
pect, that the liars primarily respon-
sible for this iniquity will be exposed
and dismissed by the American Tract
Society, and that the official board
will retract and apologize. We know
OF no organization of any kind that
has, in recent years, committed a
more inexcusable outrage than the
publication of this vile assault"
1t is for such articles as this. and
the spirit they manifest, that the !
Post deserves the thanks of the whole |
country, as for this article it particu-
larly merits the gratitude of the
South.