The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1912-04-03

When th6 cnllQreQ Ol Lne couuiLS SouoAo
ton are taught by priest and parent and
precept that lat last it biteth like a serpent
and stingeth like an adder" that the sue
cessful man of the future will be the sober
man, that the g%in-drinker can have no ca
reer, no health, no peace, NO self-respect'
no self-reliance- nothing that is worth
while, looking at life from the attitude OF
age-then Charleston, and every other
community will find It's wide-open-ness to
contract to such q degree as to become In
visible or at least unnoticeable.
The reiormer from q distance does moi
treat Charleston quite fairly. He :eom-
pares Charleston to inland cities. to Char
leston's disfavor. He does not understand
Charleston's people, her population, their
habits, mode Of life, etc. The people who
live in that city are not bad, as q people.
On the other hand, they will compare IA
vorably with any people on earth. They
are ~blg.hearted people, kind, generous
hospitable. Their one fault has been
Haunted over the State to such an extent
that her virtues have been almost echpsed.
We say with the News and Courier, give
Charleston time, give the mayor time and
expect no permanent results until the In
dividuals, who are the city, have been
reached and pursuaded that the fault OF
the city is merely the fault Of the indlvid-
usl. Then the laws on the statute book
will be respected and not enforcedl
This Is q campaign for the mayor, ills
true, but to the extent that 1t Is for the
pulpit, the parents and particularly the
schools. The individual must be reached
before that city can hope to close the
shutters.
The business men Of a city can do much
to promote proper sentiment ana form
public opinion. When they trown the
population squeaks. The trouble Is the
business man is smiling. He i~sicontent,
satisfied. He feels 10 responsibility and
delegates such matters to the politicians
and the preachers. * =:
The preachers preach at the political
leaders, and the political leaders refer the
matter back to the preachers with Secom-
m%endations. and 80 the question goes,
battledoor and shuttlecock, white the
wide-openness continues as 1t has oon-
tinued and as 1t will continue In Charles
ton and Yladlvostok and Valparaiso and
Abbeville and everywhere else until my
people" do not wish Ito have 1t 30"
Charleston's fault Is the>fault Of every
city, town, and hamlet in South Carolina.
only Charleston's fault has been smpha-
sized by her peculiar conditions aud. peo-
pie. tla.z4y
One difference between Charleston and
many other towns Is that Charleston does
not bandage her sore, while the others
have bandsged theirs tight and fast.
They have Q horror Of any n else seeing
the thing. Charleston doesn't seem to
care. No one will deny that every town
in the State, large or small, has such a
sore. Abbeville has it but she has such a
rag on it that no peeping eye can tell just
how big the cancer is. And 80 with all our
other sister towns-and yet we complain
about Charleston.
Preachers, teachers, business men, asso-
Citations. fathers, mothers, unions, doctors,
druggists, priests, acolytes, elders, des-
cons, class leaders, newspapers, editors,
lawyers, farmers. are not doing their duty
! toward the individual. Stop for just one