The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1910-12-15
~ SA AAASs
The Harris Home.

the crime.
The Harris Home.
There is pathos immeasurable in
the story of Mary Harris and though
the mind revolts from degradation
such as she has confessed to yet it
must be said that she is not all bad
and is the result of an environment
which is deplorable, and poverty
of the direst.
Dwelling in a house so open that,
as it was described by a resident
here, the birds can fly through it,
Mary Harris, herself only 18 or 20
years old now, the eldest of family
of four girls, has had to work like
negro and with negroes. Her mother
died two years ago, and her father,
a simple half-witted unfortunate,
gave eloquent testimony that there
is a great deal of good in the girl.
Don't keep Mary long," said the
poor man the night she was taken
from home. "She has been daddy
and nanny both to these girls.
Seventeen years ha' worked for
Roy Tuten for wages and I are worn
out. Mary's good daughter" That
this is true there is abundant testi-
mony in Brunson.
Bob Harris is described not as half
witted but as less than that. His
wife is said to have been not much
above her husband in intelligence.
The children are intelligent, even
bright. They are small.
The Reason.
In Brunson it is said that Mary
Harris, in all probability, gave her.
self from dire poverty and not from
waywardness. She had some school
ing, can read and write and some
years back the children came to Sun
day-school in Brunson. Mary has
worked hard for Tuten, who owns
much of the land round here and SO
acres within the corporate limits.
Since she has grown large enough
she has labored in the cotton fields
with the negroes, been hauled from
one field to another with them in
the same wagon, and for some years
negroes have been almost her only
associates. Jake Browns wife has
been good to her, she said patheti-
cally when asked why she went to
the negro's house. With the care of
her young sisters forced upon her
without the association of any white
woman, is it any wonder this wretch
ed and forsaken child turned to this
negro woman who had known her
from her infancy?
'She was the only one l could go
to for advice; when she told me
rot to do things I followed her di-
rections," said the girl 'Sne was
good to me-"
Fearful Odds.
Battling against such odds, no
mother, no friends, a partly helpless
father who never was of full intelli-
gence and who had been whipped in
the battle with poverty, herself and
four others to feed and clothe, can
one greatly wonder that this child
strayed from the right path? And
when she had strayed where was
there one to direct her to Him who
said to another erring woman: "Go
and sin no more. Thy sins are for
given thee?"
There be some blind mouths" who
condemn utterly and talk extrava-
gantly, but let it be said that it was
not due to fear of any violence being
offered that the girl was taken to Co.
lumbia. She was as safe in Hampton
Jail as she is behind the walls of the
penitentiary, but to prevent her be-
ing talked to by the morbidly curious
the sheriff thought it best to send her
away.
Meantime the three little sisters
and the father who has worked II
years for wages are without the girl
who "was good daughter and both
m nomv opd doddv,3 fo bor moth orc