The leader., 1903-05-13

piled admission, by the way
which shows that there had beel
disorder ON former occasions
which it was desirable to have
special police to suppress.
After Prof. Scott's article ap
peared in The Times, the editor
of The Leader wrote him a note
calling his attention to the state
ments he had made to him on the
occasion referred to, not wishing
to misquote him, and, in his re-
ply, referring to the crowd which
had come to the school building
that evening to raise trouble, he
says:
"After I reached the hall, and while
waiting for the people to assemble, my
suspicious were aroused by hearing
this crowd of boys approach with
noisy demonstration. Detecting in the
supposed to be in the plot to attack
me, and judging from the noise that
they wereJprobably bent on mischief,
went to my office and armed myself
with a revolver which happened to be
in my desk. This revolver was the
one which took from the --- boy
just before his expulsion from the
school. had requested his father to
call for it but he had not done so.)
II think I also stated to you that
later in the evening lit was in fact
during the last number ON the pro-
gram I was informed by gentleman
present (whose name | can give, if
necessary that he had seen some of
the boys of the aforementioned crowd
with razors, brick k-bats, ETC., in their
pockets. AS to the pistols, I had no
positive information or knowledge
that they had them, but had right to
presume SO for the reason that | had
at times seen some of these same boys
on the street with revolvers on their
persons, and had been told that it was
their habit to carry these weapons"
In addition to the above testi-
mony from Prof. Scott and the
student body that there was an
extraordinary condition of affairs
on the evening in question, the
individual testimony Of visitors
and patrons which would fill, if
quoted whole page of The Lead
er, we quote below an editorial
paragraph from The Lincoln
County Times of the same week
The Leaders, criticism was pub
lished. The Times captioned its
article "Disgraceful Conduct"
and said:
IA dozen or so boys of various ages
caused not little discomfort to the
audience at the public school building
Friday night by their hoodlum like
actions, and aroused strong sense OF
disgust in all well-bred persons
present. Their part of the perform.
ance consisted principally in talking
ia an undertone during the presenta
tion of the numbers and in excessive
applause between selections, such as
whistling equal to steam calliope
pounding and kicking desks, stamping
etc. The confusion while the stage
performance was going on cannot be
attributed entirely to the boys, fol
many of both sexes and maturer years
found it convenient to visit, as so otter
they do at public entertainments in
Brookhaven, with utter disregard OF
the rights of people who would like to
hear. After the program was compile
ted and while the judges we're wrestling
over their verdicts, bedlam broke loose
land could not hear himself
think"
Considering the extremely con
servative policy steadfastly pur
sued by The Times, it goes with
out the saying that nothing short
of some extraordinary provocatior
could have elected from it such 8
bold and vigorous editorial deliv
erance. Further along in its edi
torial The Times said:
"Half dozen alert men with bug
gy whip each behind the door, coult
have handled the situation admirably
The interference of less than tha
number would have been resisted b.
the embryo desperadoes and the result
would not have been pleas mt"
In the face of such facts anC
testimony as the above, fol
| Messrs. Scott and McGrath tt
come out a assweek later as they did
and seek to minimize and condont
the bad order complained of ano
to discredit The Leader, is to dis
credit and belittle themselves be
fore the whole community. How
pitifully hollow and bombasti'
| does Mr.. McGrath's closing de
nunciation sound in the face of i
all.
We wish to say just herr
that what most provoked -Th'
Leaders, comments published il
connection with the students
resolutions), was this: 1t seemed
to us that the really responsible
authorities of the school were put
ting the student body forward tt
denounce the rowdy conduct ant
to uphold that for which these
authorities themselves were tht
true sponsors; while they 1.-THE
authorities), took no public cog
nizance of the matter and gave tt
the public no assurance that there
would not be a recurrence of tht
j disgracefulss conduct condemned BY
the students, The Leader, ane
others. 1t is exceedingly regret
able that Prof. Scott and Mr.. Nc
Grath, speaking for the schoo
authorities, should have written |
whole column in newspaper
condeminng The Leader and con
doning what happened, and ye
wholly overlook this one thins
so essential to the restoration o
public confidence in the manage
ment and the best interests Of tn
school. Many have ceased to at