The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1899-05-11
HISTORY REPEATS ITsELF
BILL ARP ON LYNCHING.

BILL ARP ON LYNCHING.
No Good Man Has Roason to Fear 1,
and tho Wicked May Expect it
Only Terrible Crimes Call for Ven
gcanoc.
~, The lynching Of Sam Holt is ovor
Inc press and tho preachers havo ex.
pressed their horror or their approval
and the world moves on--not q stay
nor q stop nor a jolt is felt other So
cially, religiously, financially or COM
merclally. Tho fulminations of the
Northern press nor the approhensions
OK editors nearer home amount to any
lining. History is just repeating it.
SOIL. Every few years something like
thls happens and tho press aud the
preachers explode in about tho same
language until they got tired and then
subsido and wait quietly for some 9th or
narrowing thing to happen. We re-
member we'll what the press said about
The burning Of the brute at Dallas a
lew years ago, and tho Same adjcctivcs
were used and tho same anathcmus
hurlei upon our people. Tho brute
who ravishcd child Of six years and
then killed her and throw her mutt
lated body in the bushes actually found
friends among our enemies. They said
| .
per when the negro assaulted little
glrl near Madison as she was going
homo from school alone and then cut
| ncr throat and threw her body in
gully and covered it. with brush. When
vengeance overlook him the Northern
press howled rs usual.
II is their business to howl. They
ike it, and no doubt are glad this
thing has happened. 1t feeds their ap-
petlte and nurses their wrath and will
last them a week, perhaps longer. In
the language Of Governor Oates, |
would rise to q point of order and ask,
what are you going to do about it ?"
Nothing, of course, nothing. Such
things will happen sometimes every
who're at long intervals, but they do
not affect q single item Of civilizu-
tion.
-, VINO ls afraid to move to Georgia or
Texas because Of lynchipgs Nobody,
save, perhaps, q few bad men who
mlnk OF coming because they arc in
bad repute at home. Fitzgerald was
not afraid to come, nor afraid to stay,
ana the Northern people in that grow
ing city are celebrating their content
with picnics and other hilaritics while
! write. The wicked flee where DO
man Dursueth. No good man is in
danger OF the lyuchers. No law-abid-
lug citizen has any fear for himself or
MS household. 1t takes terrible
crime to arouse a whole community
into SUCH remedy, and so feel no
personal alarm. Reader, do you?
The truth is that lynchings arc not
as frequent in the South as they have
been, but are getting quite common
over the line. We read THAT they tried
to lynch man in Now York tho other
day Tor stealing 81 horse. Why they
nave long since quit that in Texas.
Mr.. lnman Is right or nearly so. He
says In his answer to the symposium
OF opinions that there Is no just cause
Tor alarm among the country people
no creator cause than there has been.
mat 20 per cent. OF the people, both
white and black, arc harmless and law
abiding and we will have to watch and
punish the other . per cent. just as We
have been doing for many years" The
per cent OF the bad negroes is greater
than ho thinks. The number In the
ohalngangs prove this, but their crimes
are generally misdemeanors, larceny
ana burglary, and education does not
correct this. Booker Washington SAYS
10 does, but observation and the stats-
tics OF the prison commission prove the
reverse.
we OLD mon who owned slaves before
the war are established in our opinions
That education does not lessen crime,
neither among whites nor blacks. Mr.
Stetson, the chairman OF tho school
commission OF Massachusetts, declared
this In pamphlet several years ago,
and proved that education increased
crlme not little, but to an alarming
oXtent. | have great respect for BOChe!
Washington, and believe that the
nI NO ie i,,i,1
sen crime among the pupils he is edu-
eating. Our slaves we're educs ted by
fear OF tho lash or the whipping post,
and you can pick them out today. It
ls their children, born since the war,
or their grandchildren who arc in the
chalngang.
Why should thcro be 1000 negroes
In these State and county chaingangs
or Georgia when there are only 2IO
white convict5? 1t will not do to say
tho negro is punished and tho white
man escapes. That is lie, and cvcry
observing man knows j.. My own OBJ
servatlon 1s that tho courts lean to the
negro rather than against him. No
small per cent. Of the colored convlcts
arc now serving second torn and
some i" third term, which proves that
imprisonment docs not reform the me-
gro. When he comes out his last con-
dltlon ls worse than the first. But the
whipping post would 50 thoroughly re-
form young negro that he would not
repeat the Oifenso. Confinement in ail
nearly crushes the soul out of q white
man, but negro is perfectly contcntcd
there. Ask the shorilrs or the iailers if
this 10 not so. Now it will tako per.
haps ten years TO do it, but my candid
opinion is that the number Of convicts
would in that time bo reduced from
1000 to 400 wore the whipping post
used instead OF the chalngang. Dela-
ware has experimental with this for
half century and will not abolish it. 1t
Is used for all colore-whitc, black and
mulattO. II that little State WAS South
of the limo wouldent sho catch it from
the Northern press end Northern
preachers.
But how can we make the change,
| for as long as the negro has vote he
will vote against q candidate who ia
vOrs 1t and the candidates arc gener-
ally demagogucs and dare not dlspieasc