Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1904-01-06
THE STAIN OF HumAa BLOOD.
Life Is Sweet, But>H Is snythIns But Sweet
10 q Red.Handed Murderer.

human being, except in self-defense
during excitement or on the field oi
battle, is terrible thing and unless q
man be hardened into brutality and
is utterly devoid of conscience it will
haunt him to his dying day.
Three times during my career
have deliberately made up my mind
to kill, but determined to make my
antagonists first the assailants and to
give them fair showing, and thus
put my own life in Jeopardy. But
when the necessity for any such en-.
counter had passed the feeling of re-
lief was indescribable.
Thousands upon thousands of USE
full and brilliant lives have been
blighted and rendered miserable by
the taking of human life even when
the killing was justified, both in the
sight of man and by the laws of the
land, the curse of Cain follows the
slayer his entire days.
My father, I think, was with the
Hon. William L. Yancey, the great
Secession leader, of Greenville. They
were boys together, were warm
friends, and | have often heard my
father speak of the circumstance.
Yancey killed Earle as the latter was
advancing upon him with an upraised
walking cane, and when the fatal
shot was fired. just before the late
war between the States my father
and Mr.. Yancey met in Montgomery,
Ala. Mr.. Yancey, in discussing the
tragedy, stated that he had no in
tention of shooting DR.. Earle, but
the encounter took place in the pi-
azza of the post Office, an old wooden
building opposite the Mansion House
in Greenville, and which piazza had
no railing, being several feet from the
ground. DR.. Earle attacked Mr..
Yancey because he had slapped the
face of his little son, Elias, there be-
ing no very kind feeling between the
two men. DR.. Earle raised his cane
and advanced upon Mr.. Yancey, who
drew his pistol, presented it and re-
treated backward. = Mr.. Yancey
stated that he had no intention of
shooting the doctor, but wanted to
intimidate him. In stepping back
ward he felt that he had reached the
extreme end of the piazza and, in or
der to prevent falling off, had mad
vertantly pressed the trigger. But,
the great Southern statesman told
my father he would freely give fame,
fortune and all he possessed and
again start life poor, ignorant and
obscure man, could he, by doing So,
only wipe that blood from his hands !;
that often, in the midst Of his most
brilliant orations, would he see the
figure of DR.. Earle with that up
raised cane as when the tragedy was
enacted, rise before him. 1t haunted
him day and night, and while he was
justified in the killing and the sem
tence imposed by the law was light,
his life was unending remorse and
self-reproach. Years after the kill
ing, when Mr.. Yancey returned to
visit his mother-in-law, Mrs. Earle,
in Greenville, and Elias had grown to
the young man, who had
innocently caused the death of his
father, appeared before the gate with
shotgun in hand and asked to see
Col. Yancey. Yancey, from behind
the closed door, told Elias to go
away and he would return to Ala
bama and not visit Greenville again !;
that he had mora of the Earle blood
then upon his hands than he could
ever wash away and did not want
any more. This visit would proba-
bly, have resulted fatally had not the
old lady, who, like all of the Earles,
was as brave as lion, seized shot
gun and told Elias that he must go
away and not further molest her
guest, and that if he attempted any
violence toward Yancey he must first
fire through her. The next day Mr..
Yancey left for Alabama, and did not
ever return again, / think, to South
Carolina until as delegate to the
Charleston convention.
If the killing of a human being
can be made juslifiable it was that
of Bynum by Perry. Bynum was a
noted duelist, and had been employed
to provoke Perry into a fight and
take his life. The two men repre-
sented extreme factions in South
Carolina politics, and which were as
bitter as in the days Of Tillmanism
and Conservatism. Bynum was az
expert with the pistol, and had killed,
80 | am told, more than one man.
While on the other hand, Perry had
but little, if any, practice with that
weapon, being man of peace, but
undoubted courage. But Perry's
steady nerve and cool head proved
superior to the skill of his antago-
mist, who was killed at the first fire,
and his grave is still pointed ont at
the historic Rock church, near Glenn
son college. But even the knowledge
that this duel had been forced on
him, and that his enemy was given