Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1901-12-18
The Portsnious Pistols,

T. y
The last South Carolina Legisla-
ture made . law that no pistol shall
be sold in that State with barrel
less than twenty inches long OF
weighing less than three pounds.
The law will be effective July 1,
1902. After that date, as we under
stand, anybody who kills man with
a revolver of less than the required
size will be liable to punishment.
If the law is made effective, the
South Carolina campaign meetings
after the supply of revolvers of the
present issue has been worn out by
use-will present curious aspect.
Short men of the sswool hat" order
who attend in their shirt sleeves will
be at a disadvantage because a
twenty-inch pistol worn in the
breeohes leg will inevitably interfere
with the knee action. We do not
know but that the law may be sue
cessfully attacked, on this account,
on constitutional grounds. 1t APP
pears to be a distinct discrimination
against the horny-handed son of toll
and sweating and down. -trodden
masses who habitually array them
selves with one gallus as evidence of
heir contempt for conventionalities
and loyalty to Ben Tillman. A three
pound revolver would be, we admit,
a serious addition to the responsibili-
ties of this one gallus, already heavy,
and would threaten constantly calami-
tous consequences. 1t is strain too
severe for any one American gallus
to be subjected to. Our plea would
not be in behalf of the buttons, be-
cause they are usually replaced by a
horseshoe nail or an oaken skewer,
but in behalf of the gallus itself ;
and the courts might hold that it is
a serious Infringement of the rights
and privileges of the citizen to re-
quire him to wear two galluses while
his tastes and habits incline him to
one.
Furthermore, the law gives a dis
tinct advantage to statesmen, pluto
Gratis, aristocrats, octopuses and other
obnoxious GLASSES wearing long-tailed
coats. These insatiate enemies of
the common people can carry their
new revolyers hitohcd on behind
with string, concealed by the dra-
peries which their arrogance and
effete habits cause them TO adopt,
and ready to be produced with one
hand !; whereas the common people
hastily extricating weapon of the
required length from its breeohes leg
would be compelled to use both
hands and to lose valuable time,
often to his serious detriment.
AS to the children, the aged and
infirm and the dyspeptics of South
Carolina, we can see nothing before
them but expatriation-turning their
backs upon the beautiful and beloved
State of their nativity and seeking
some new land where they may
carry revolvers adapted to the die
tates of their own consciences and
their physical capacity. The pros
pect before them is gloomy indeed.
They might, of course, mount the
proposed weapons on wheels and
draw them about with ropes, but
such arrangement frequently would
be inconvenient and disastrous. The
great merit of revolver, aside from
its ornamental functions and the
fact that without it citizen is liaole
to censure or arrest for indecent ex-
posure of his life, is its hardness.
While busily and happily disengag-
ing it from its carriage with the
laudable purpose of doing business
the unhappy owner might have SO
many holes created in his person as
to destroy his usefulness personally.
We fear that the bacilli of aristoc-
racy has infected the South Carolina
Legislature. This pistol law APP
pears to us to be distinctly blow at
the massessand discrimination in
favor of the classes and likely to
destroy the sympathy of political
gathering and to bar the toiling and
oppressed populace from attendance
at them.-A. B. Williams, in Rich
mond News.
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