The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1910-03-23
Fiends Work at Abbeville.

SQ1ereu lIdcIuIeS VI loSo vi "ihh' J"'HI
ing from windows. -.
4 mass meeting of horTor-stricken cltl-
ZenS of Abbeville expressed condemnation
of the demOniacal act, and the toWn couE-
ell offered a reward for the apprehension
of the tiends. The Governor will be asked
to proclaim q reward of a thousand dollars
for their conviction.
Amore appalling crime has never been
committed in this country II the
burning of that Abbeville schOolhouse,
filled with sleeping negro boys, n the
town and county Of Abbeville and the
State of South Carolina must spare no
effort and no expense to bring punish
ment to the criminals. No ordinary mea-
sures will do. Extraordinary measures.
pressed with extraordinary vlgor are de,
handed, for the honor OF county ana
State. ~
Abbeyille, once a centre of Intelligence
and refinement, is made O victim, along
with these poor innocent negro youths,
OF the barbarity of men with white skins
| whose membership would disgrace the
meanest race on earth. The act that
shocks humanity was melted by race
hatred, intensified by a feeling OF jealousy
awakened by a vague sense OF lniellorlty
in the breast of the untutored white when
he sees the negro responding to the stir
ing of ambition. H.
The low criminals who brought this dis
grace upon Abbeville and South Carolina are
but the pupils of those men who, DONG
nothing for the uplifting of the W
strata of whites, fan race antagonlsm ana
traffic indemagogy. This thing when
has happened in Abbeville is the frult OF
years OF speeches and writings by office
seekers and by laundering editors. These
incendiaries are Of the grade Of citizens
they have bred.
Columbia State.
And will the Editor Of the State pray
tell us from what source he gathers his
information.
While the people of Abbeville, in the
most re sponsive mass meeting even held
here, have been subscribing funds and
divising means to bring to justice the
iend or fendswho committed this dastartly
act, they are coolly informed by the edi-
tor OF the State that white men commit
ed the deed, and that the fact Is known TO
citizens of Abbeville. We would believe that
this sanderous statement is due to misin-
formation rather than to a deliberate pur-
pose to malign. Even in that event, the
State has made q great mistake to so
grossly insult the people of Abbeville, up
on mere hear say. 1t has assured that
hostile feeling existed between our white
people and the management of the school
while the fact is as the President and all
the professors Of the college will testify,
there Is positively no unkind feeling
existing, and there has not been the
slightest friction, since Reverend Young
assumed control.
!. The former president was a negro
. reared in the North, and had little idea of
conditions in the South. His ideas were
reflected in the behavior of his students,
and intolerable conditions such as The
State, as any other Southern paper, can
readily understand, were fast culuminat-
ing. A delegation OF our best citizens
among them men who had held up the hands
Of the former president. went to him and
in a perfectly peacable and impassionate
conference advised him to discontinue his
work, as his methods and ideas together
with the lack of discipline, would surely
lead to race troubles. He acted Oh their
advice and prepared to leave at once.
There was, no conceaiment about the
matter 4; there was IN Of the white cap
or night rider spirit in it. The mel who
went on this mission are above calumny
or reproach, and they went at the instance
Of our best citizens.
Rev. Young who succeeded to the posi-
ton was born and reared at Due West in
this county. He understood the Southern
temperament better, and at once he and
his school grew in favor with our people.
There has not been a single unkind ex-
preston about either the president or his
college since he organized his work.
The State says: "Abbeviile, once a center
Of intelligence and refinement, is made a
victim, along with these poor innocent ne
gro youths, of the %barbarity of men with
white skin whose membership would dis
grace the meanest race on earth"
Waving; the implied statement that
intelligence and refinement no longer
fined abode in midst, it may be asked
when has it come to pass that the act OF
the midnight criminal is to be made the
gauge of a c~ommunity's res reliability.
Are the citizens of Columbia less respect
able, less refined, less intelligent because
crime is committed on her streets? Has
the editor Of the State who SO glibly de-
nounces ''pandering editors" and speech
es and writings by Office seekers" sue
ceeded in driving the midnight assassin
from Richland County? Is criminal court
in the Capital city remembered only as a
thing that waned and then went out before
the onslaught Of this editor who assumes
to set up a standard and prescribe limits
Of responsibility for others of his profess
sion in their several communities.
The Docket will show that crime has
not diminished in Columbia; that there as
here, the criminal is such not because of
any lax views entertained by the better
element but in spite of the best endeavor
OF that better element.
Now the man or woman, black or white,
as the case may be, who set fire to Harbi-
son College, is simply a criminal who in
the darkness applied the torch; and to
this darkness, and not to public sentiment
is he or she trusting to escape punishment
for the foul deed.
There is positively not a shadow of evil
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