Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-05-05


stand for lawn order" They have
followed the old gray mule, the old
hard TAIL" up and down the cotton
and corn rows, have seen the sun rise
up in the morning and worked on un-
til it sank behind yon western hills.
The Confederate veteran (an impress
sive, sometimes pathetic old man he
is, up close to the stand; leaning for
ward to hear and trembling as he
leans) is heartily praised and for him
there is urged a more generous pen
sion.
A bit hard it Is on a candidate IL
this Is about the fortieth county visit
ed and therefore the fortieth time he
has told his opening joke about him
self, made his plea and risen to per-
Grafton. But unless he be a major
candidate, the audience is but mildly
interested and idly chews its tobacco
and smokes it's pipe.
The time arrives for Blease to
speak. There is a wave of animation.
Any stranger could now pick out the
Blease men from those who oppose
him, for their faces are expectant
Tell 'em about it, Coley!" shouts a
man out in the crowd; "Godder-
mighty amt he a man." says another.
Blease pulls up his sleeves, looks
over the audience, and launches into
his speech. He denounces his enem-
les, sticks to his friends, declares he
has nothing to apologize for, hits hard
at the hostile press, attacks high
taxes and those lin office who imposed
them, gives his opinion of the creation
of new offices to be filed with poll
tical "pets,' declares his devotion to
the working mans cause, and so on
until the driving. dynamic concluding
rhetoric is drowned in cheering. He
knows the chords to play upon. He
knows the popular mind and the little
things that effect it. He can be SER
ious or can laugh, can be sentimental
or vitrolic, according to the subject
in hand. He can express the Crouch
es, the hopes, the irritations, the am
bitions of those who believe in him.
A vote for Blease is not so much
an affirmative ballot, though the voter
shouts with enthusiasm at the men
ton of "Coley's" name; it is vote of
protest-of protest against conditions
that existed before the War of Seces-
sion and were brought over into post
war. life; conditions which not only
permitted, but almost compelled the
"po' white man" to remain poor, to
remain cramped in his ignorance.
Prior to the sixties there grew up
in South Carolina, p charming civiliza-
ton. Especially in the lower part of
the state, on the coastal plain, were
vast plantations, and numerous beau
tiful manors could be seen at the end
of live oak avenues along any road.
The great planters of the state Of
ten had two homes-one on the river
where their fields were, and another
ont in the pine ridges where they lived
during the hot months when. the river
bottoms were humid and the mos
quitoes vocarious. Or perhaps they
would live in Charleston during the
winter, and when the sun became too
warm would drive up into the Pied
mont regions. They were fairly free
to go and come at will for slaves were
plentiful and the petty annoyances of
life, the details of management did
not plague them. Each plantation
was an entity, depending very little
upon the outside world except for for
eign luxuries. In Charleston, along
the river valleys where rice was
grown and further inland on the
larger cotton plantations. there grew
up an aristocracy unsurpassed by any
this country has ever known. The
landlords, large slave owners, cultured,
strong, hospitable, lived in an order
They made up a wealthier class than
any other that has ever existed in
South Carolina. They were the public
officials, the sportsmen. They enter
tained, they visited back and forth.
They were devotees of outdoor and
courtiers of indoor life. A fox chase,
a deer drive, a turkey, duck or quail
hunt could be arranged at any time
in season, and there were fish in all
the streams. Their houses were de-
signed by the best Of architects, each
set upon some promontory, with the
slave quarter to the rear. Wood
carvers were brought in to make them
ornate. The silver plate was burden
somcly heavy. These planters went
eff to school, sometimes abroad; they
travelled and they gloried in the full
ness Of exuberant life.
There were other elements in the
white population-the overseers, the
small farmers the craftsmen, and the
folks upstate. where slave holding
was not engaged i'll extensively and
where white men, as a rule, did their
own work But there was no protest.
Social lines were sharply drawn, but
they were not irksome. Conditions
were accepted. There was plenty of