The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1907-09-04
1.-THE BETTER WAY"

n Copy-uooh indhiNn uSeu 10 say
"Virturc is it's own reward" but so
hackneyed became the truth that it's
force is dulled. Sentiment moves men
but the frailties of humanity make us
trail wav behind-often out of sight
of our ideals. 1t is pleasant to be COM
mended for a good deed by close friends
but it is inspiring to be complimented
from unexpected quarters. Good peo-
pie are a community's best asset and the
handful of citizens whose acts call forth
the following editorial in the September
issue of the Taylor-Trotwood Magazine
have done Laurens county good.
There happened in South Carolina a
few weeks ago a little incident which
perhaps as clearly as anything could
do, illustrates at least one side of life
in the South. For years and years
there has been in the little village of
Clinton (pardon us, the thriving city
Of Clinton,) a school (again we ask
forgiveness college, which has been
the pride of the little coterie of earnest
workers and the des air of all who
were interested in only the strong in
situations. In this one way it plugged
along, turning out graduates and D.
D., unmindful of poverty and ridicule,
and ever hoping for the good things
that were to come. Nine miles away
there was situated another town about
twice the size of Clinton, the county
seat of Clinton's county. If a Clinton
man Dragged, the other town had only
| trlc ngRd them that they had no cleo
both grew their rivalry naturally tRsy
ac~centuated. The other day the col.
lege took on new life. There was a
big fight about moving it to some
other place, and there were those who
laughed at the size of Clinton with its
kerosene oil lamps and it's ~footpaths
for streets. Then Clinton got together
and found herself. She offered $40. OOO
and more to keep the college, and rang
bells to rejoice when her deputation
came back from the conference an
nouncing that she had won. With her
$40, COO as a basis, the college began to
grow, then her life long rival, the
Cush, who ever spoke enviously of her,
the Samaritans of nine miles away who
made fun of her for having no electric
lights, did the handsome thing and built
a dormitory of their own money to be
known by their name, and to stand for
ever on the campus of Clinton College
as a monument of the way one town
can help another to be great, even
though the other should be her rival.
Then the whole ~populace of the smaller
town got together, rang bells, sang
hymns, offered prayers, signed resolu-
tions, saying that they. the citizens of
Clinton, assembled, etc.
This is a simple thing to do, and does
not read very much like a nan
and yet it is. Furthermore, it is worth
more than a hundred romances-it is
what the Germans call a deed-prophecy.
1t teaches a lesson to all of the thous-
and pickering villages of this country
who would tear down the reputation
and standing of their neighbors. 1t
speaks to cities like Nashville and At
lanta and Memphis and asks them why
they don't back up one another more,
n reminds them that there are in
Their w limits institutions, publica-
tons, enterprises, which although thew
are their very own, yet are not half
supported. What Laurens did for Gin
ton is what Nashville should do for her
magazines, what Atlanta should do for
her schools, and what Memphis should
do for a hundred of her enterprises. 1t
is worth while pointing out in this con-
nection, that only those cities are great
which believe in themselves and their
which do not esteem the
mans position as the prize to be
grasped after, but which rather, recog-
true worth everywhere, strive
by united effort to make their w
magazines, their own colleges, their
own enterprise, the very best of all.
Where a city fails to do this thing, she
suffers; where a state fails to do it,
she suffers; where a people fail to do
it, they, and they first of all, suffer.
Little Laurens and little Clinton have
shown with their thousands what big
Nashville and big Atlanta should do
with their hundreds of thousands.