The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1903-05-15
Suggests That Colored Missiona-
ries DO Sent to Connecticut.
READS OF SAD CONDITION OF PEOPLE
William Finde Another Truthful
Book Which Receives Hls Hearty
Commendation-Alkahett Ar.
ticls Alec Highly
Praised.

lions OF a long article by a preacher |
describing the sad condition Of q poo
pie he had recently visited. Out OF
one hundred and sixty-eight towns in
the state he visited seventy of them |
are off from the railroad. and all
Of these have decreased In population |
since 1890. None of these towns have |
settled pastors or preachers and the
churches are abandoned or have
preaching at irregular intervals and
the attendance hardly ever exceeds
twenty-five persons. The Sabbath
schools are equally deserted. The once
busy plants of small industries are
dead and the people farm only for the
bare necessities of life. Houses, barns
and fences are going to decay and the
little mills that were on the creeks
have tumbled down and the dams
have washed away. Here and there
you will see a stately mansion shelter
Ing some degenerate family in the
back rooms, while the vacant front
greets you with the silence of the
tomb Sometimes you will find an
old man and woman alone in an old
ancestral home. l found a mother
and her two sons and two old maids
In one house not one OF whom could
read. The intermarriage of near rela-
tiyes, or no marrying at ALL Is com
mon, and bachelors and divorced men
and widowers have housekeepers and
they unblushingly cohabit with them
and the young girls become grass wild
ows by the time they are sixteen.
where is all this" said my wife.
81 don't believe a word of it. 1t is
some newspaper liza fake made up
by some reporter" l read on. In one
town found the usual Saturday night
dance going on in an old vacated tav-
ern, and they danced and revealed and
drank until Sunday morning. Sunday
is no more observed than it is in Chi
4 c3go, for they hoe and dig and gather
lJhay all the same as on week days. IL
literacy, insanity and imbecility are
very marked! l found one family in
which both parents were idiots and
had raised up a family of idiots. In
another home or house l found a poor
old father taking care of three moth
erless children, all idiots.
II don't believe a word of It," said
MY wife. There is no such people in
this country What paper are you
reading from?"
You can hardly conceive of the filth
and vice reigning in these country
places called homes-a barbarism diff
fering from the city slums only In it's
st2gnant inertia and touched as little
church influences as if in the heart
Of Africa. The country people all over
the state are generally without ambi-
ton, improyident, ignorant, not able
to read or write, loose in their family
relations, socially corrupt, given to
drink, and some to the opium habit.
And these are the towns where, half a
century ago, lived the best families of
the tstate. Among them the Fields
(Cyrus and his brothers), the Abbotts,
the Barnes and Donald G. Mitchell and
others.
And now let me ten you, my dear
wife, am reading from The Hartford
Times, and this is only a short por-
ton of the report read in New Haven
recently by Rev. Mr.. Hutchlns, Bible
colporteur, of Connecticut
Fbis report is fully accredited to be
true Rnd the editor of The Times tries
to tone9,it down by saying: The same
CONDITIONS described by Mr. Hutchins
for Connecticut are common to all the
older states" Rev. George Horr, Of
Massachusetts, is also a Bible colpor
teur nor that state, and he said in
Boston Athe other say: Il have driven
all oysr New England with my OWL
horses and my conviction is, there is
no immortality in any western mining
town that will compare with what yor
find a few miles from any New Eng
land town Mr. Hutchins' observation
corres22 Ids exactly with my own"
Goe friends, kind friends, what II
to be one about this? But the edito1
of The. Times is mistaken when hi
says the same conditions are common
to all the older states. We have NJ
such people in Georgia. In some o
our mountain counties the people ar,
illiterate. but they are honest ant
morally d attend church and observe
the me.effage relation and obey tn
laws of the land and make the bes
soldiers the world ever saw. The,
have courts twice year and it take
oaly a half a week to clear the crimi
nal dockets.
M, Voc tbipl,ing that as POsfOr