Cheraw chronicle. [volume] (Cheraw, S.C.) 1896-2005, 1916-05-04
Swatting the Fan.T0ter.


clipping from the Augusta Chronicle
of Il recent date, in which Editor Tom
Loyless treats the same subject. 1t
appears that South Gecrgian's, at
least, and particularly in the growing
town of Dawson, are getting their
eyes open and their backbones stiff
ened, and have made the abolition Of
he cooks loot pan community
movement.
One noticeable result has been the
going to work of many negro men who
have heretofore been parasites ON the
community. The idea Is well worth
considering, even here in South Caro-
lima. where the cooks pan Is ever
present.
The Chronicles editorial is as fol-
lows:
"Some towns, like some men, are
born great, some achieve greatness,
but some have greatness thrust upon
them. Or fame, which is fairly good
| substitute for greatness.
The good little city Of Dawson,
ia. has done the better thing, how
ever and achieved fome; or, to be
more exact, greatness.
Heretofore, Dawson has been chief
Is known to fame for having turned
loose upon the country more news
PAPER men, of one bind and another,
than any ether town Of its size
in Georgia. But Dawson was not con-
tent to stop there; for whatever its
personages'-might do to carry the
towns name down to history, there
was ever a local yearning for some
thing more practical; something that
would confer blessing upon the liV-
ing as we'll, and confer 1t right there
at home.
80 what did Dawson do? Why,
Dawson simply, enacted new city
ordinance that for uniqueness, as we'll
as for practical results has no paral-
lei in the ANNALS Of municipal legisla-
ton; while, at the same time, setting
an example for other towns, and cities,
too, to follow.
Dawson, like every other southern
TOWN. has negro cooks Of the feminine
gender. And these cooks have-or
had-pans; large tin pans, which were
sometimes, tin buckets OF other large
conveyors. These said pans, or buck
cts, were a part CT the daily apparel
of Dawson's negro cooks; a well reg
ulated cook being considered not prop
erly accoutered unless tin pan, or
its equivalent, were a part Of her out
fit. Coming to work in the morning,
or going home at night, Dawson's
negro cooks carried tin pans as the
accepted insignia Of their rank and
calling.
Then, alas and alack! some Daw-
son genius, who sought the bubble rep
utation in local legislative halls, rath-
er than at the cannon's mouth, came
forward with an ordinance making 1t
unlawful, within the corporate limits
Of Dawson, for a negro cook to carry
a tin pan, or bucket, in going to and
from her work-particularly from.
THE possession Of such tinware, at
such time and place, was, by solemn
enactment of the Dawson city council,
decreed to be prima facie evidence OF
intent to convert, secrete and appro-
pirate to ones own use-or that OF
some third person-the property of
another, consisting mainly Of food,
without the party's knowledge and
consent: the same constituting petty
theft.
Such was the anti-pan-toting ord
nance of tbis far-seeing southwest
Georgia town; and these were its re-
suits: According to the Lord Mayor
of Dawson, Hon. John Mercer Bell,
1t has saved many dollars to the FAM
lilies of Dawson, and it has caused
many negro men to go to work who
formerly were fed by the pan route
In other words, as Mayor Bell fur
ther explains,
" The practice Of cooks taking
home with them all leftover and un-
cooked foods had become serious
item of expense. 1t was habit that
the individual householder seemed I'M
able to stop. The ordinance was the
only solution, and it has worked adj
mirably.'
$50 it has come to pass, that Daw-
son IS no longer known to fame mere
ly aS the birthplace of some Of the
best newspaper nell in the south
which latter was not entirely Of her
own violation, but has suddenly leap
ed to q higher niche and must hence
forth he known as the home Of the
lawgivers, who are us wise in their
day as was Solomon in his time; or,
even more 50, for Solomon never had
Il pan-toting problem to solve and,
probably, wouldn't have solved it so
well as Dawson has had he been put
to the task"