New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-02-24
HUMANITY IN SOUTH CAROLINA.

A difference OF opinion may exist rs TO the
fitness for office of Fraser b. Baker. who was
the negro postmaster at Lake City, s. c. There
is fair field for discussion as to the wisdom
of appointing colored mel to handle the mails
in places where race feeling runs high and
white people dislike having to deal with col
ored ofce-holders But there can be no two
views among civilized men of the attack made
in the dead Of night on this postmasters house
by an armed mob, which set fire to the build
ing and not only killed him but also shot his
wife and children including an infant In arms.
as they were driven from home by the flames.
This was not the work Of mere murdererS.
1t was the work Of savageS. The crime was
not done by wild Kurd tribesme1 on the women
ard children of Armenian village, nor by
some Afghan on the family Of the British in
vader nor by a Russian martn,t on some
Siberian exiles nor by Turkish masters Of
wretched Cretans, nor by Spanish sodery OH
Cuban rebels, nor even by red Indians dancing
naked about a prarie-schooner camp. 1t was
done by white men, descendants of the found
ers OF one Of the thirteen original States of the
American Union, the boosted leader of the
worlds latest and best civilization. 1t &C.
Cured In a professedy Christian community.
where churches abound, where schools have
long existed, where courts sit, where books are
read where virtue IS honored. where chivalry
proclaims itself at home Almost seventy years
after Robert Y. Hayne challenged civilization
TO match the State Of Laurens Rutledge, Pinck-
ney. Sumter and Marion, South Carolina is
stained with a iendish and cruel act of blood
shed which was not equalled by anything in
the border warfare Of pioneering days
This crime cannot be excused, other vlo
lent outbreaks in the South have been, rs the
act Of a mob fired by n noble If ungovernable
rage TO avenge some wrong. Nor even can 1t
be explained as political, for it did not stop
merely with the murder of an unpopular person
Neither was II the act of a few irresponsible
outlaws. This infant-slaughterlng, woman
shooting. man-burning crowd was practically
an assemblage Of the white community OF the
neighborhood. Their savagery was the cul-
mnaton Of course Of persecution which ap-
parently had the support Of some of the most
prominent people in the State. All South Caro-
lima IS disgraced by them. for Soutl. Carolina
has been for years educating her people in
lynchlngs. mob-murders and race prosecutions
until murder has been made a natural insru-
ment Of political controversy and the killing
filled out the measure Of South Cardinals bar
baran debauch.
No doubt these Carolina murderers Of chill
drcn are ardent champions of liberty. Every
time they heard that Weyler had harmed the
family Of some Cuban their chlvarous blood
probably bounded fast and they 1ongcd to 90
and bring peace and prosperity to the Antilles.
When the Maine sank their hearts We're wrung
for the widows and orphans. and they yearncd
TO wipe away all tears. To-day there is weep
ing in Lake City A mother weeps for her dead
babe, children cease crying over their own
wounds to weep for n dead father a father and
child lie burned by the fires Of their own home
What can these South Carolina people do to
wipe away those tears;