Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-09-22

this would be a distinct advantage. A
community held together by mental
activities and moralities would live un-
der the most elevating conditions.
Such social centers, secured by the
sure and strong defense Of the officers
of the law, would draw men and women
away from the congested urban centers
by an almost irresistible attraction.
Farming, wisely and diligently pur-
sued, is not an Improbable business. /
know ignorant negroes who as tenant
farmers make more money each year
than many young white men who are
engaged as clerks in stores Very many
men in Georgia are rapidly accumu-
ating property on their farms. The
recent panic hurt the farmer less than
Il did any other man. He was very
little affected by it. His investments
were not in inflated and uncertain Sc
curities, but in the steady values Of
his native SOIL His lands have steadily
appreciated in value for many years
past, and they will rise still higher.
Their increase in value would be
nightly accelerated If adequate pro-
lection were thrown around his home.
If our lawmakers would frame a
statute providing for rural police,
bound by bonds and moved by the
sternest penalties to the faithful dis
charge of their duties, a vast advance
in agriculture would speedily follow.
The products of the soil would be null
tiplied by so much as the peace Of the
community would be preserved.
It ought never to be forgotten that
the peace and prosperity of the rural
sections Of the south have much to do
with the welfare Of the whole country.
The cotton crop of the south goes far
to keep the balance Of trade in favor
of the United States, and thus it breaks
the force of panics and averts the per-
lis of financial depressions. Our
northern neighbors may lecture our
people, as If virtue were growth ma
tive only to the states north Of Mason
and Dixon's line; but If the cotton crop
of the south failed to come, they
would find themselves in very great
straits. New England, as Old Eng
land, could not live six months If shut
up to the products of its own soil.
1.-The lazy Southerner," so called by his
self-complacent northern neighbor, has
much to do with making life tolerable
in the land Of Goldfish and dried apples.
The truth is that this much criticised
southerner is about the only Puritan
now left in America, and he needs good
protection in his rural home that the
nation may have good crop Of young
Puritans to save the republic in some
hour of stress and danger.
Rural police and village farming
would make his habitation the most
blessed in the world. His climate is
not enervating, as some ignorantly
suppose. He lives between those par
allels within which have been produced
the greatest men Of the world. Messrs.
David Isaiah, Paul, Demosthenes, Ho-
mer, Plato, Alexander, Hannibal, Cae-
sar, Virgil, Dante, Cicero, Napoleon,
George Washington, Madison, Robert
E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson were all
southern men. They were not speci-
mems of enervation, but samples Of the
highest sort of energy. The southern
climate is not enerxating; it is in
spring. But the rural home in the
south during this period Of transition
needs better protection. Let us see
that it has it-at least in Georgia.