The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-02-20
DUE WEST
A Town Where Everybody Is Good
and Vice a Thing Unknown-Lem-
onadc Parties Have q Certain Vogue
but These are Regarded as Gfddy.

III Ill the IOWLS ia TIE IUltEu SUITES
good or bad. the hamlet of Due West.
s. c., Is the best" Tina is, it is freest
from sin and the sinful. There the in
habitants fairly revel in goodness and
the devil is conspicuous by his ab-
n Due West was founded n Is
! ruled by the Associated Reformed
| Presbyterian church known as the
most straight laced sect in South Car
DINA or any other State. The man who
strays from the straight and narrow
path of rectitude has a poor show in
Due West.
It Is extraordinary day there when
they nave only one religious service.
If such a day passes through some &C
cident it stands out from the calendar
of the inhabitants memory in big red
letters. Travellers who have passed
through-and escaped-say that a re-
ligious service precedes and follows
every meal, but there are no official
records to prove this rather extrava-
CANT charge. If there is one service
every day it is easy to deduce that
there is not much time for f~rivolity on
Sunday.
Every One Goes to Church.
Then the villagers give up every
thing else to go to church. Morning,
afternoon and evening they worship.
If a thief happened to enter the place
during church services he might very
we'll carry away the whole town-ex-
cept the church itself-for all the op-
position he would meet For every
body WOULD be in the church, and pro-
vided the thief did not try to disturb
that building he would never be seen.
About the only excuse for the exist
nee Of Due West is the presence of
two schools. They are called Erskine
College and the Due West Female
College. Men go to the one and wom-
en- to the other. The village is one of
those, of which there are nan in the
more thinly settled States, which
cluster about colleges and schools and
draw their s~ustenance form the pat
rOnage Of faculty and tuden If it
were not for the Erskine and the Fe-
male college it is more likely that
there would not be any Due West.
The men who founded the schools
originally belonged to the regular
Presbyterian church, but it was not
strict and serious enough for them.
They made a split. and the result is
the Associated Reformed division. The
members Of it are the Puritans Of mod
ern times.
Erskine College is at one end of Due
West and the Female College is at
the OllcI IIeN dlc dOOot 1Oui nun
dred yards apart. Naturally there is
no intercourse between the students
of one school and those of the other.
What dire penalty would be visited on
one who dared to break the separa-
ton rule no one knows-for there has
never been a violation. The boldest
of the men students sometimes walk
along the gravel path in front of the
girls grounds, but that is as near as
hey get.
The strangest feature of the good
ness of Due West is that it is not en-
forced goodness. The students them
selves are as we'll behaved and as
proper as members of the faculty..
Religious exercises are not a pun
ishment-they are a pleasure. The
boys and girls look forward to Sunday
almost with a longing, and about Fri
day they count the hours hat sepa-
rate them from the Sabbath.
The cigarette law Of Indiana passei
by the Legislature and enforced by
the sheriffs and the police is nothing
to the unwritten law that keeps the
"coffn tacks'' out of Due West. Con-
~sequently, nobody who desires to stay
in Due West drives. If a stranger
happens to pass through in a buggy
or a cart On Sunday scandalized eyes
peer at him through half closed shut
ters, and many are the signs of relief
when he passes across the corporation
limits of Due West and disappears in
20 the outside world. !
One time a glee club from Chicago
gave i concert in Due west for the
benefit of the Due West Female Col
Iege and Erskine College. The stud
ents attended in a body, or rather in
one side of the concert hall and the
boys a little less primly. on the other.
It was Saturday night, and every
pody was happy. because next day
was Sunday. There was nothing
about the music of the a from Chi
cago to shock the ideas of the powers
that ruled Due West.
But afterward, when the business
manager of the glee club spoke of
leaving the next day there were omni-
Gus looks exchanged by the Due
Westerners. For to leave on Sunday
would mean having horses hitched up
and driven to the nearest railroad
station.
Four Miles From Railroad.
The little town is four miles from
the railroad. It is just about half
way between the main line of the
Southern and the Seaboard Air Line.
Somebody has said that the elders
would have put it further from the
Southern. but that would have meant
putting it nearer the Seaboard. Both
companies run trains on Sunday!
The glee club expected to ave a
good nights rest and eat the best
breakfast Due West could give them.
AS a curiosity a man with a cigarette
IN his mouth would run a close race
with a man walking on his head or
one with a single y in the middle
Of his forehead.
The rules made by the faculties Of
the two schools are only a matter OF
form-empty, unnecessary statutes
that might as we'll never have been
made, for nobody wants to break
them. 1t is almost absurd to mention
the possibility of whiskey ever being
Quaffed in Due West.
The boldest most adventurous act a
student of Erskine College can do is
to make q wicket This is an express
sion known only to Due West. To
make a wicket means to obtain o
nod of recognition from ones ~favorite
among the damSals at the Female