Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1915-10-28
JOURNEY TO HE'LL
AND BACK" By AN EDITOR.

and plain Things TO q Oh HOpSMS4A
City Point. VA where people have
gone from Hendersonvile for employ
ment, and city built within the past
year.
Here indeed is a task worthy of a
Hugo. HepeWell grows beyond the
comprehension of its most observait
.inhabitant. Here is a town that has
been thrown together SO hnrriedly and
SO haphazard that no inventory may be
taken of it. Real estate men who have
been on the ground since the first loG
was sold are astonishingly ignorant Of
their proposition. / interviewed i've
or six. Not one knew within 5000 the
actual population of the5place; ont one
knew actually how many thousands
are employed in the Du Pont mills;
not one knew how many millions the
EuPonts have invested in grounds and
buildings. They were only certain that
Is, 0 to $4,000 men are employed in
Hopewell and that the payroll of the
mills totals one million five hundred
thousand dollars every two weeks.
Rome ON the Job.
Policemen! There is a considerable
force in Hopewell; but the policemen
don't know anything. They Know
they are busy; the police court gr1nds
ali day. The arrests are principally
for carrying concealed weapons, fight
ins drunkenness, gambling, liquor
selling murder. But the police can't
tell you anything much about the town.
Two policemen to whom l. talked
couldn't tell me for sure whether there
is a church in dopewell. 1 did find
out however that the preacher prefes-
sion hasn't neglected this profitable
field. A town with more than a mil
lion dollars a fortnight for labor isn't
going to be spiritually neglected. The
Salvation Army those English spar
rows of, the ecclesiastical DOMAIN,
were the first on the scene. Then
came the Roman Catholics. Where
rum and gold are plentiful Rome is
quick to raise her cross. The Protes-
ant denominations have lately begun To /.
struggle in. The Protestants have
built a tabernacle or so. Rome is
building a church. Yes, there is relig-
ious life in Hopewell. BUT THERE
Is NO SCHOOL. Hopewell has yet to
give education a thought. Rome
probably will look after that too, in
her own good time, and in her own
peculiar way.
Seven Dead Men I'm q Row.
well, 1 guess you have some pretty
good cemeteries here?" l asked with
a wink. The policeman didn't know.
/ asked others; they didn't know. One
said, ct seems to me they have
one around here somewhere; if they
haven't they ought to; 1 saw seven
bodies laid out all in a row, on the
@ fvoof 6nuro hu fhn 1onAf fho 0fI,oa
And that is about as
any body in Hopewell can tell you
about anything in Hopewell.
The population of Hopewell is strik-
ingly polygottous. 1t is supposed to
American. AS a matter of fact. every
except perhaps the Japanese. For
some reason the Japs have escaped the
EPIDEMIC. / saw only n Chinaman
in Hopeyell, and this lonesome yellow
fellow had his little laundry on the
the first time / ever saw a Chinese
laundry upstairs and / reckon John
thought he'd be safer upstairs than
down, in Hopewell,
The Greek colony is especially on
SDICuOuSs 4AO vi SOhS 0OOA ~ Ao
beaten the Jews to the commercial
possibilities of Hopewell. The Greek
colony in Hopewell recently sent 800
young men back to their native laid
tc enlist for war.
Little Law, No Order.
From the foregoing facts which l
have presented the reader may be pre-
pared for the statement that there is
little law and no order in Hopewell.
The town has never been incorporated
and it has sprung SO suddenly into be-
inc that the sleepyLheaded and unso-
p~histicated authorities of Prince
George County are powerless to grasp
the situation or control it. Governor
H. C.. Stuart has taken a hand n tried
to get some order out of the chaos,
but it is too much of a job for a gov
ernor. Governor Stuart has succeed
ed in putting down some of the law
lessness the open saloons have been
closed; the open gambling halls have
been closed; the lewd woman has been
forced to make herself less conspicu-
Gus. Having begun to take on some
OF the veneer of civilization and hide
their dirt, the tipplersa gamblers and
houses of Hopewell are more subdued.
make less show and less noise, with
the result that there is less boisterous
ness, less r~owdyism, less fighting, stab
bling. shooting and murder. Gamb-
bling, drinking, prostitution and 9TH
er farms of vice go merrily on in Hope
well, but they don't advertise the fact
as they did a few months of a few
weeks ago. If the police of Hopewell
haven't succeeded IN putting down n
deviltry they at least have had some
sort of an understanding with the pro-
fessional offenders.
immortality Even in Jail.
And Governor. Stuart of Virginia is
still on the job. ALI over Hopewell one
will find his p1acards, $3.50 reward for
evidence leading to the arrest of high
uro vpann S25 reward for