The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-07-04
Ghe @essen9er.
TIE STENCIL

LlonS nave ALREADY come into Ifull
that has rotted. The Greensboro Tel
egIam a the nerve to come out with
the following offering to Raleigh's
civic virtue" and the splendid peo-
pie of this city. who, by heritage and
by distinct actually are as clean and
en- as high plane of life as are the
folk of any other section Of the globe.
Whenever a mar with the ego-dic-
tatorial itch fame the people of his
own home city, belittles those who
are giants by a goodly d~irectness and
sincerity, besmirches men and women
who ere his neighbors, and brands the
citizens Of his community as deni-
zens Of al editorial hell, one can ex-
rect little else than repetition 10y the
outside press.
The editorial from The Greensboro
Telegram is in these words:
The affair in Raleigh was horrible
beyond description. One hates to
think sue a thing possible-tha- men
can be SO UNANIMOUSLY designing or
that womanhood can be so weak. The
occurrence, however, directs attention
to a cordition that exists to q greater
or less degree everywhere. the want
CT sufficient safeguards for the frail
young womanhood Of the land. Indeed
this absence of safeguards actually
taxes the positive form of brazen al
lowa1ce CT the existence of convenient
ces for the degradation of woman.
And Raleigh, we must believe. is deep
er-dyed in guilt h any of her North
Carolina sister cities. The events
which eliminated in Saturdays shoot
ing (the shooting itself was Il mere
trife by the side of the crime which
led to it,, constitute a blot on the
capital city's fair name which will
linger there forever. We trust that
there may result a moral awakening
that will revoIutionize conditions
there.
Certainly every "hellhole' should
be wiped out of existence and an end
should be made Of the shameless ac-
tivity Of hacks and carriages"
This. if it so pleases you, my lords
n prophets, is from Greensboro
from Greensboro.
The above is taken from the editor
rial columns of Wednesdays Evening
Times, of Raleigh. 1t is as scathing a
rebuke of the "perfervid and v~iciously
yellow" editorials Of The News and
Observer as we have seen. Junius in
his best efforts never gave to the pub
lie anything as caustic and as biting
and as much to the point in the way
of just, but acrid criticism as is the
second paragraph of the above quoted
article. "EgO-dictatOrial itch of the
editor who has of late so voluminOusly
DETAINED the officials and the churches
of his own town. The term is new to
us and so far as we know originated
in the fertile brain of the editor of The
Times. He was most happy in his
conception of Il phrase applicable to
the person to whom he applied it. 1t
could not have been more neatly or
more forcibly said.
Because of the editorial writings of
the man to whom that expression was
applied the news has gone forth from
one end of the state to the other that
Raleigh is a combined Sodom and Co
morrah. The hinges of the back doors
OF hell are not blacker than he de-
picts the city which claims him as a
citizen. He says there are many good
people in Raleigh. We D he
classes himself among that number.
What surprises us is that if the gen.
~" VI lhdI city dIS d. lear
fully bad as he depicts them, why he
and the other many good citizens' do
not shake the filthy lust of that city
from their feet and take precipitous
departure therefrom. It's nc place i'll
which a moral man should make his
home. immortality and vice are, sc
rampant and so Over-powering that
there IS danger any day of that mora
editor and the other many good PEG
pie" being contaminated and seduced
from the paths of rectitude and vir.
tue. We are looking daily for news
OF a general exodus of the many gooG
people from that cesspOol of immoral
ity with the editor of the organ OF
morality as it's Moses.
What we do not understand, though
Is how all this vice and immortality
should have gotten such sudden foot
hold in our capital city. Up to las
Saturday that city, so far as we couiC
learn from the columns of its leadine
organ of public morals, was a mode
city. The 'lieutenants Of the devil' ii
the guise of private rumsellers hat
, been routed and supplanted by repre-
sentatives of the reform city govern
ment as booze dispensers. The mora
element had driven the ungodly from
the seat of power and everything wa;
working smoothly and according t.
tho host viShaS of tho reform editor
We heard nothing from him about an.
places of immortality. Raleigh had n,
guided halls of vice. so far as W,
could learn from the columns of his pa
per. But suddenly the quiet of las
Saturday morning was broken b,
three sharp pistol shots and a MAJ
YVES She down. without warming