The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1903-04-01
4 SAD PICTURE.
B;ll Arp Calls Attention to the Deea.
Gence Of the
FARMERS OF NEW ENGL AND.

He Writes About Book, Which All
Should Read, Especially Our
Young Mcn. a Goo;!
Letter.
Last night | read to my family pof-
tionS OF long article ny preacher
describing the SAD condition o: l peo-
pie he has recently visited. put OF
one hundred and Sixty-cisht towh> IN
the State he visited seventy OF them
that are OH from tie railroads. 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
sch0ulS are equally deserted. The
once busy plants of small industries
are dead and the people farm only tor
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 anc
there you will see stately mansion
sheltering some degenerate family IN
IL, ~; 10 lan
Z greets you with the silence OF the
tomb. Sometimes you will find an ola
man and woman alon. in an CID ances-
tral home. I found a mother anc iieF
two sons and two Old maids in one
house not one Of whom could fead.
The intermarriase Of near relatives
S or not marrying at all is common aco
bachelor and divorced men and widow
ers have housekeepers and they un-
blushingly cohabit with them anc
young girls become grass widows by
the time they are sixteen.
Where is all thiS?" said my wife.
81 don't believe q word Of it. 1t is
some newspaper lie-a fake made up
by some reporter. l read on. In
one town found the usual Saturday
night dance going on in an old vacated
tavern and they danced and dere!led
and drank until Sunday morning.
Sunday is DO more observed than it is
in Chicago, for they hoe and dig and
gather hay all the same as on week
days. Initeracy, insanity and lmoe-
cility are very marked, found one
family in which beth parents were
idiots and had raised up a family OF
idots. In another home or house l
found a Door father taking care OF
three motherless children, all idiots.
I don't believe a word Of it, said
my wife. There is no such people
in this country. What paper are you
reading trom:" -,
One Can hardly conceive Of the hlth
and vice reigning in these country
places called homeS-a barbarism ol1-
fering from the city slums only 10 ITS
stagnant inertia and touched as little
by church influences as if IN the heart
Of Africa. The conntry people all
over the State are generally without
ambition. improyioent, ignorant, not
able to read or write, loose in their
family relations, socially corrupt, CIV
en- to drink, and some TO the opium
habit. And these are the towns where
half century ago, lived the best fam
lies Of the State. Among them the
Fields Cyrus and his brother), the
Abbotts, the Barnes and Donald q.
Mitchell and others.
And now let me tell you, my dear
wife, am reading from The Hartford
Times and this is only short portion
Of the report read in New Haven re-
Gently by Rev. Mr.. Hutching, Bible
colporteur, OF Connecticut.
This report is fully accredited to be
true and the editor OF The Times tries
to tone it down by saying, The same
conditions described by Mr.. Hutchins
for Connecticut are common to all the
older States Rev. George Horr. OF
Of Massachusetts,, is also a Bible col
porteur for that State and he said in
Boston the other day, | have driven
all over New England with my own
horses and my conviction is there is
no Immortality in any western mining
town that will compare with what you
find a few miles from any New En-
gland town. Mr. Hutchins' obSerya-
ton corresponds exactly with my
own
Good friends, kind friends, What is
to be done about this. But the editor
Of The Times is mistaken when he
says the same conditions are common
to all the older States. We have no
such people in Georgia. In some Of
our mountain counties the people are
illiterate, but tney are honest and
moral and attend church ard observe
the marriage relation and obey the
laws Of the land and make the best
soldiers the world ever saw. They
have courts twice year and it takes
only half week to clear the crimi-
nal dockets.
Now, was thinking that as Bos-
ton and Hartford and New Haven had
sent big lot Of money down here to
educate and reform our negroes 1t
would be nothing but fair for US to
send a lot Of the graduates up there
to DC missionary work in Connecticut
and Massachusetts,. These negro
graduates couldn't teach them the
lost art of making wooden nutmegS,
but they could teach school and preach
and the New England people could
pay them for it and keep their money
at home. Something must be done
and done quick. or the old Puritan
race will become extinct. | reckon
these colored graduates would make
good missionaries. They have never
tried anything else.
j T.