The Cordele dispatch. (Cordele, Ga.) 19??-1971, 1916-07-16
Reflected Dissertations
BY MAX G. LAND.

| Fourth OF July should be observed in
this country provided we care any
thing about the people who lived be.
fore us and who have handed down
to us the best country on the face of
! the earth.
If We are to appreciate the noble
deeds, tie suffering, the heroism, the
patriotism and acts OF valor, which
are represented by our glorious flag
and we should forever favor celebrat
| ing the Fourth SO that succeeding gen.
craft ons will honor and reverence
| those who have made their inheritance
possible. If the Tory blood had pre-
vailed in those days we would still
doubtless be a colony of England or
some other foreign power, but thanks
to those heroic ancestors who had
the fortitude to put down the Tory
ism ana the enemy abroad.
Georgia did not furnish as many OF
these celebrated patriots as Virginia
gian or American does not love to re-
call such Georgians as George Walton,
| Lyman Hall and Button Quinnett, the
signers Of the declaration of independ-
ence. Of Colonel John Mcintosh, who
at the battle of Fort Morris was COM
manded to surrender the Fort, but re-
plying he said, Come and take it. "
The legislature of the state presented
him a sword with those memorable
words engraved upon it. Of Noble
Wimbecly Jones, called the morning
star of Liberty. OF Joseph Habersham
who afterwards became Post Master
General in the cabinet of George Wash
ington. Of Lincoln Mcintosh, whom
Washington loved to praise. OF Ar
chibald Bulloch and Of Gov. James
Jackson who burned the records of
the yaZoo fraud with fire from the
heavens. Of Elijah Clark and John
Dooly, heroes of Kettle Creek, and of
Nancy Hart, who conquered the six
Tories, and who is the only woman
for whom a Georgia county was nam
ed?
What makes a people great? 1t is
the character of it's men and women,
and everything which inspires lofty
patriot; SIN should be encouraged and
kept alive and handed on to other gen
erations.
Of course the legislature had to
come forward with some kind of an
ignoramus law about pistols. The ses-
sion would not have been complete if
this bill had not appeared in a freak
form Maybe it will start a style, how
ever, of every man carrying pistol
four feet long. This kind Of legisla-
ton is brought about because there
are some isolated cases of criminals
who misuse the pistol. These same
er knife, shop axe, pocket billy, or
throw caustic as the women in Allan
! ia did not long since. The pistol re-
| former generally has a rather narraw
perceptive and only yooks at the evil
produced by the pistol, without taking
| into consideration the evil that they
| likewise hold in check, or the good
they accomplish. There is no telling
| how many lives and how many homes
have been protected and shielded from
harm and danger by the existence of
the pistol. There is no stimating the
amount of visciousness and evil the
pistol has held in allegiance.
1t is just as essential for law abiding
| individuals to be protected against the
| lawless as it is for the nation to
preach the doctrine of preparedness.
There ale too many criminals run
ming loose yet for tne law abiding
alone, to think of abolishing the pis-
| toll If the law is passed it would be
like the most of the laws-kept by the
law-abiding people and violated by the
law breaking class, placing the law
abiding more in jeopardy and at the
whim of the breakers. Nature has
not created all men equal in physical
strength, and some one has very wise
ly said that the pistol puts all men
equal on the question of combat, and
since it looks as though combats will
| continue both as to nations and in
dividuals as long as mankind wears
| the flesh, it would seem that the pistol
is a very good thing to neutralize the
difference between the weak and til
strong, and it often holds in check
those VINO would over-run the weak
by force. The same argument about
nation being prepared for war ap
plies to the individual OF course
have no use for the man who contin
ually goes around with a pistol in his
pocket, but there will be some abuses
of every right as long as time lasts
and there is no use to destroy gooC
because there are some abuses, an6
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