The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1914-04-02
A Mothers Protest.

EQltOr Inc BamDerg Herald: AS
citizen of this county and a resident
of Ehrhardt. | desire, through the
columns of your most excellent pa
per, to voice protest against con-
ditions that prevail throughout our
county, but more particularly in the
town of Ehrhardt. These conditions
have been greatly exaggerated since
the establishment of the dispensary
as is easily proven not alone by OBJ
servation, but by the increase in
crime within the last few months.
In the first place, | want to say
that I am a woman and mother,
and, as such, do not carry much
force as a citizen, as l am not al
lowed to vote. but I cannot 0e one
to sit with folded hands and cloven
tongue and let these evils go unno-
ticed and uncondemned. It is time
for the women of Bamberg county
to arouse themselves and do things
that it seems we haven't men enough
to do. 1t is such conditions as eX-
ist in our own, county that drive
women to the ballot, and then the
men throw up their hands in hor-
ror.
This writer has lived in number
of sections of South Carolina and
she unhesitatingly states that there
is more open drunkenness and con-
sequent lawlessness in this section
than in any she has known. lii the
name of womanhood, childhood. and
decency, she desires to protest
against the open drunkenness and
debauchery that is allowed on the
streets of Ehrhardt on Saturdays.
In most towns. where any form OF
law is maintained, the least sign Of
drunkenness on the streets is follow
ed by arrest, but here crowds of ne
groes and white men blockade the
streets and reel and lurch and hold
drunken revel. 1t is not safe for
woman or girl to pass along the
streets. The writer has on one or
two occasions had to dodge the
lurch of a drunken negro. Is it right,
is it decent, is it fair that our streets
should be turned over to drunken
debauchery, even if it is Saturday?
AS I write there comes to my men,
ory, a great big marshal in a small
town who used to walk the crowded
streets on Saturday, club in hand,
keeping the crowds moving and gall
lantly clearing the way for the lady
pedestrian. Woe be the man, white
or negro, who showed any sign of
drunkenness. That officer was strict
" ION his job" and the ideal police
man.
Since there are those who boldly
advocated the dispensary and voted
for it's establishment because of the
revenue that might go for town I'M
provements, l ask them, in the name
of common sense and plain facts,
what has the dispensary done for
Ehrhardt within the few months OF
it's existence? This is what it has
done: 1t has increaseds drunkenness
100 per cent, it has caused open
drunkenness of young men of our
town who were never seen drunk
before the temptation was thrust in
to their faces. It has caused several
street fights, and one cold blooded
murder besides a shameful amount
of drunkenness among the poor. lg-
norant negroes.
voice this protest not alone for
the sake of our girls and women,
but God save our boys. Shall their
eyes be blinded and their hearts
scared by the constant spectre that
stalks our streets? A blear-eyed,
reeling, ruined manhood! "God give
us men," Men who shall 'stand for
higher ideals of civic Righteousness;
men who shall stand ia our court
rooms and uphold a law to protect us
against the drunken brute who
stalks the land, pistol in pocket, and
does his deadly work, knowing that
he shall go free. "God give us
men," for it seems they are nearly
all dead or asleep!
"A MOTHER"