Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-06-21
1.-THE PRESS OF south CAROLINA
In The REVOLUTION OF 1885,
CONTINUED from First Page].

awakening, stirring supporter Hamp-
ton had. Its former position, instead
of being a cause Of weakness, gave 1t
extraordinary strength. 1t was hailed
at home as a welcome and powerful
convert and a new friend, and abroad
its former position and long pleas for
peace and conservatism made it's sud-
den demand for vigorous action the
more impressive. A weaker or tim
orous man would have edged away
and changed front gradually. Cap
tain Dawson, with the boldness Of a
strategist, daring all on single move
ment, and with the vigor Of virility,
threw himself and his newspaper in
TO the campaign he had so actively op-
posed, end took the lead from his op-
ponents. He engaged new. correspond
ents and stirred and won back old
ones, who had become lukewarm or
hostile. He had a trained force OF
stars to begin with-McKinley Moro
so, Blackman-men who had proved
their ability, their honesty and their
courage. He sent these out or engag-
ed them at home writing stories of the
Democratic campaign and its meet
ings. The News and Courier repre-
sentatives were everywhere and their
stories, coming into the office and edit
ed and headed by T. Roswell Logan.
cleaned and scintillated and stirred
and got close to the popular heart.
June %, 1876.
Meanwhile it was going Ill with US
on the Journal Of Commerce. We had
no organization, discipline or purpose.
On the morning Of June 2S, 1876, the
centennial of the battle Of Fort Moul-
trie, probably the most famous and
greatest celebration the old city had
known, fifteen reporters for our pa
per, including extras, were to report
on the steps Of the Citadel Square Bap-
tist church at : o'clock in the morn
ing and receive orders. Three Of us
appeared and we found no chief and
no orders. l wandered away and did
what / could, and at the Washington
Artillery punch bowl found five OF our
men. Six of us were on the excursion
steamer cavorting about Charleston
harbor. The result was a series OF
repetitions, messes, mixes and mixes
which made the paper ridiculous
everything sent up higgledy- -piggledly
- a.
ment as the reporters, drunk, sober,
and reasonably sober, chose to write
1t. Our friends were compelled to
groan and go to the News and Courier
for an orderly, collected, connected
account Of what had been done and
said. We had a lot Of brilliant writ
ing and description and some careful
ly worked out narrative, but 1t was
thrown together anyhow as the fore
man got it. It was the same In the
campaign. At the beginning we had
nobody, trusting to local correspond
ents. while the News and Courier had
out its brightest and best men. Then
I, having been sent back to Richmond
because Of yellow fever, was ordered
to follow Hampton-a boy, rank
stranger to the states history and ge-
ography; sent to write up the most
tremendous struggle that ever has
been or ever can be here. l suppose
the directors decreed 1t. 1t was on this
campaign that I first met n. G. Con
zales, then the Colleton corre-
spondent of the Journal Of Commerce
I had handled his copy in the office
many a night. He was a slip OF boy
galloping about with bit Of red fan
mel In his hat. Four years after that
loyal to a promise made on that same
ride, I called him to the Greenville
News. because no other newspaper
would take him, and in two months
he demonstrated his quality so clearly
that the News and Courier gathered
him in eagerly. Wherever we went
we found the power and influence of
the local newspapers.
Reaching into every nook and cor
ner, into Granny's Quarter, Potts
Cove, Pumpkintown, Hanging Rock
and He'll Hole, they had moved and
stirred and melted the people. There
fore Hampton found himself at the
head Of an army of $4,000 armed and
fighting men in red shirts, and invinc-
ible.
There was no dearth of editorial
matter then, and no lack of mon to
supply 1t. The campaign was keleido-
scopic, pyrotechnic, brilliant, new
event. a fresh danger, startling in
cident or utterance every day. The
newspapers had to incite the people to
action, to exhort them to caution In
the same breath, to kindle fire In their
hearts and hold them to cold prudence.
The air was electric with danger.
Each step and hour bristled with diff
ficulty and perplexity. That we were
steered through is hardly less than a
miracle. The national Democratic ex-
ecutive committee was beseeching us
i'm .tremuous timidity to avoid any
outbreak or bloodshed, which might
arouse northern prejudice. The ne
groes and Radicals here were provok-
ing us daily, trying to frighten from
us the negro allies we were working
for so anxiously. President Grant
first threatened and then sent troops.
Riot and battle at Hamburg and Cair-
hoy and in Barnwell, Aiken and
Charleston brought intense nervous
strain and evaporation. The state
was not only an alarmed camp, but
powder magazine, with the lighted
match wavering over it, a hell seeth-
ing against its lid. Through it all the
newspapers of South Carolina were
steady and dauntless as the Old
Guard. They worked together with
the precision of a trained army, recog-
nized and aided every move of STRAIT
egy with marvellous sagacity, were
the weapons with which Hampton
and Haskell struck hardest at the
common foe. 1t made the white pei
pie unanimous and no other race ever
has stood against unanimous white