The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1903-03-26
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES,
! BILL ARP
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES

Last night I read to my family por-
tions of long article by a preacher
describing the sad condition of a pee-
pie he has recently visited. Out Of ono
hundred and sixty-eight towns in the
State he visited seventy Of them that
are off from the 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 schools are
equally deserted. Inc once busy plants
Of small industries are dead and the
people farm only for the bare necessi-
ties 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 stately
mansion sheltering 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-
tives or not marrying at all is common
and bachelor and divorced men and
wodowers have housekeepers and they
unblushingly cohabit with them and
young girls become grass widows by
the time they are sixteen.
Where is all this?" said my wife.
81 don't believe word Of it. Itlis some
newspaper lie-a fake made up by
some reporter" l read on. In one town
l found the usual Saturday night dance
going on in an old vacated tavern and
they danced and develled and drank
until Sunday morning. Sunday is no
more observed than 1t Is in Chicago,
for they hoe and dig and gather hay
all the same as on week days. Hitter
acy, 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 | found poor father taking
care of three motherless 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 read
ing from?"
One can hardly conceive of the filth
and vice reigning In these country
places called homss-a barbarism dill
fering from the city slums only in its
stagnant inertia and touched as little
by church influences as if in the heart
of Africa. The country people all over
the State are generally without ambi-
tion, improvident, 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 State. Among them the Fields
(Cyrus and his brother), the Abbotts,
the Barnes and Donald G. 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.. Hutchins, Bible
colporteur, of Connecticut.
This report is fully accredited to be
true and the editor of The Times tries
to tone 1t down by saying, "The same
conditions described by Mr.. Rutchins
for Connecticut are common to all the
older States" Rev. George Horr, OF
Massachusetts, is also Bible colpor-
teur for that State and he said in Bos-
ton the other day, 4 have driven all
over New England with my own horseS
and my conviction Is there Is no I'M
morality in any western mining towE
that will compare with what you find
a few miles from any New England
town. Mr.. Hutchins' observation cor
responds exactly with my own"
Good friends, kind friends, what Is
to be done about this. But the editor
of The Times is mastaken when he
says the same conditions are common
to all the older States. We have no
sbuch people in Georgia. In some OF
our mountain counties the people are
illiterate, but they are honest and
moral and attend church and observe
the marriage relation and obey the
laws of the land and make the best
soldiers the world ever saw. They have
courts twice a year and it takes only
a half a week to clear the criminal
dockets.
Now, I was thinking that as Boston
and Hartford and New Haven had sent
a big lot Of money down here TO euu-
cate and reform our negroes it would
be nothing but fair for us to send lot
of the graduates up there to do mis-
sionary work In Connecticut and Mas
sachusetts. 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 be-
come extinct. I reckon these colored
graduates would make good mission
aries. They have never tried anything
elese.
When my good friend Mr.. T: K.
Oglesby sent me his book, Some
Truths Of History-The South Vindi-
l.