The Dillon herald. (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, January 23, 1919, Page Page Four, Image 4
?hr Lilian 2}?ralii
Mm a. JORDAN Editor
Dillon, S. C., January, 2.J, 1019.
r
And now Attorney General Gregory
has resigned because he cannot
live on his salary. If times don't
change nobody but the dollar-a-year
patriots will be able to live in Washington.
V
When Gov. Wanning retired from
office last Tuesday South Carolina
lost one of the best governors she
has had since the close of the civil
war. Gov. Manning has disappointed
his enemies and surprised his
friends. His administration has been
one of activity and accomplishments.
He went into office under circumstances
that would have handicapped
the efforts of most men, but he took
up his duties as the state* chief executive
with an earnestness and determination
that not only astonished
his critics but won the unbound admiration
of his friends and supporters.
Many permanent reforms that
have already proved of great value
111** efntn ward inQlianrofoH linHpr
W "VIV
the Manning administration. He has
been the governor of the whole people,
and his efforts and energies have(
been directed toward the uplifting of
the masses and the industrial advancement
of the commonwealth. As
a war governor he has measured up,
fully to the expectations not only of
his home people, but of the nation asj
a whole and he leaves behind him a
record that will add lustre to South
Carolina's name when the solemn
history of the world war is written.
'
Before the end of 1919 three mil-1
lion men who gave up jobs to;
make the world safe for democracy
must find vocations in civil life. To
distribute these men over the nation
and provide employment for them
?arl f Vt Mil I a 11 i t\ rr loknr Ann
TT iiiiuu c uiaiuiuiu5 lauui LUIIUIUUIIO
is a huge task which has been undertaken
by the government through
the "Employment Service Bureau.";
The returning soldiers are not asking
for charity?what they vant is work.
The task of demoblizing this vast!
army of men is almost as great as|
the task of mobilizing them. In manyj
respects it is more serious in its con-1
sequences. The public must come to
the aid of the government. Men re-|
turning from the service must be gir-'
en the reference. They are entitled
to that much consideration from the^
men who did not go. They are entitl-.
ed to the best the country is able to'
give them. Begin now to plan some
way to provide employment for the;
boy that you know will soon be home.
It is a great task the nation has cut
out for itself, and every man is expected
to do his part.
"Who is responsible for the poor
railroad service the public is getting?"
is the question one hears on
\ every hand. Is government control
a failure or is there a systematic ef-1
fort on the part of the railroads to
disgust the public with government
ownership? These are questions that
will have to be answered sooner or
later. The public is long-suffering,
but once the public is aroused it will
Kp hnrri tn miipt until tlip hlnmo ic
....... ?
placed where it properly belongs.
The public was willing to put up with
anything while the war was on, but
the war is over, and now the public
is demanding service. Somebody is1
responsible and somebody is to
blame. The United States mail service
is one of the best business organisations
in the world. It gives better
service than any organization in America.
It i8 owned and controlled by
the government. So perfect is the postal
system that if a letter going even I
a short distance is routed the wrong
way the matter is reported to head-j
quarters and the employee responsible
for the mistake receives a calling
down from the government. But
trains continue to run late, freight
is lost or delayed in transit, legitimate
claims remain unpaid for
reonths and still nobody is held responsible.
Employees themselves are
indifferent or profess absolute ignoswnce
as to matters of ordinary detail,
and the public finds it extreme
If difficult U obtain tne information i
to which it is entitled. These are only
a few of the troubles and annoyances
the publfo la having to put up with
at the present time. But the public
is getting impatient. It is beginning
te ask questions and one of the questions
is, 'Who is responsible for this
state of affairs?" If it is the railroads
themselves the public wants
to know it; if it is the government the
I public wants to know it. The public
Is entitled to this information, and
f If conditions do not improve the publio
Is going to find out who is responsible
for the hardships and in-j
conveniences it is forced to submit!
^ A ~ *? .1. ^ V. a *? #1 rn nil
h, . IU 111 CAUliailgC IVI vuv Iiatu-Vttiuvu
dollars it is paying in increased passenger
and freight tariffs.
What is {he mutter with Dillon lighting
plant? The lights are so dim
that it is difficult for one to read
without the uid of an oil lamp. Many
households are using the old style
oil lamp at the evening meal. The
public has kicked until it is tired and
now it is beginning to rmicme. one
local wag says he has to strike a
match to see how to turn out his
lights at night. Another says he is
going to open a store for the sale of
optical goods and make a fortune.
The streets are in darkness and those
who venture out at night must have a
flash light or lantern. Dillon cannot
continue to put up with such service.
If the plant has seen its best days
the citizens should get together and
do something. The Herald has always
advocated the transmission line.
We do not believe the town will get
a satisfactory service until it connects
up with some power company
whose business is to give the public
the service it wants. We have had
opportunities in the past to connect
up with such companies and if it is
not too late negotiations should be
opened up again. If the companies
nave no more power to sell the next
best thing to do is to improve the
municipal plant. Something will have
to be done and the sooner it is done
the better for the town and its citizens.
EDITOR CiltlST OP YORK
VISITS PKK DEE SECTION.
Spends Several Days With Senator
Mcl^iurin and Writes Interestingly
of this Section.
Editor W. D. Grist of the Yorkville
Enquirer, spent a few days recently
with Senator McLaurin at
Bennettsville, and the following interesting
article appeared in a recent
issue of The Enquirer:
They've got better roads in North
Carolina than they have in South
Carolina. They are making more
progress in North Carolina than they
are making in South Carolina. They
are holding cotton in North Carolina
just as they are in South Carolina.
They are equally saddened in both
states by the flu, and the people of
both states are equally apprehensive
of what the future may hold in the
shape of further ravages from this
scourge.
These are a few of the outstanding
impressions that were confirmed
by a brief vacation that the Editor
took during the holidays. The vacation
was spent as the guest of his
friend, Hon. John L. McLaurin, of
Bennettsville, and was pretty well
filled with walks and talks and rides
and observations, scenes and impressions.
I spent two days between Yorkville
and Bennettsville, three nights
and two days with Mr. McLaurin, one
of the days in Bennettsville, and the
other on an automobile trip to the
east through Marlboro, Scotland and
Robeson counties to Lumberton, N.
C., where Rev. Baxter McLendon is
holding an evangelical meeting. I
was on the go most of the time and
the two days with Mr. McLaurin
were pretty full of interest and diversion.
Let me say in order to avoid any
misapprehension, that there was absolutely
no political object or significance
in the trip. It was purely
friendly and social. Mr. McLaurin
is done with politics. He is convinced
that he is not suited to that vocation.
He knows very well that he
could help South Carolina industrially,
agriculturally and financially
if he could be in position to shape
legislation in such manner as to
carry out the plans that he has long
cherished along that line; but he
does not feel equal to the task of
smashing the partisan barriers that
stand in the way. So he has absolutely
quit politics. He has not quit
thinking of ways- and means to help
the people to get a fair deal, means
of circumventing the parasites that
control and prey on honest production
and things of that kind; but he
has given up all thought and desire
for official position. It is not because
of any doubt of his ability to
administer such position in the way
he thinks it should be administered;
but rather because he is unable to
compete in the getting there with
people who know so little what to
do with administrative office after
they have secured it. "I have given
to the state several years during
which I could have made a great
deal of money," he says, "but if the
state has benefited as much as so
many of my friends seem to think,
I have no regrets, except that I wish
I could have more completely carried
out my plan8 in connection with
grading, marketing and financing of
cotton."
While in Bennettsville I learned
from Mr. McLaurin and others that
Marlboro farmers have not sold a
great deal of cotton. They have
thousands and thousands of bales on
their farms and in the warehouses.
The Bennettsville Warehouse com
pany, of which Mr. McLaurin is the
principal owner, is alone carrying
more than six thousand bales, and it
would have twice that much except
for the fact that it is lacking in storage
room.
Bennettsville, by the way, is quite
a pretty town, so far as fine business
buildings, handsome homes, well
kept lawns and yards go; but It
won't stand close inspection as to
I
civic progress. It has a few concrete
sidewalks, mostly constructed
by private enterprise; but it has no
leaved streets. The town is very
well laid off on a wide, flat ridge. It
is for the most par!* quite level. The
site is all that cnuld be desired. But
the streets are dirty, unpaved, muddy,
and anything but a credit to peoulo
who own so many handsome res
idences and business houses, along
with so many high priced automobiles
On Thursday Mr. McLaurin and I
took a trip in Mr. McLaurin's big
Cadalac car to Luinberton, about fifty
miles to the east of Bennettsville.
The route lay through what is com'nionly
held to be the choicest agricultural
section of Marlboro, passing
through the little towns of Tatuni
and McColl, crossing the Little Pee
Dee river at Barnes' bridge, a few
miles over the North Carolina line
in what was formerly Robeson, but
now Scotland county. The country i
through which the road runs is al-,
most as level as a floor. There is (
not a hill to be climbed anywhere. |
The soil is of a grayish yellow, with
lots of sand in it, splendid material
for a roadbed, yet the road is not
nearly as good as that between
Yorkville and Rock Hill, or York-j
ville and Clover. It is all cut up in
ruts and does not have the appearance
of having ever been dragged.
No intelligent traveler from abroad,
aware of the fact that Marlboro produces
more cotton to the acre than [
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States, would ever have believed
that he would find the principal
thoroughfare of such a county in
, any such condition ?certainly not
'when with but little labor and expense
the road could be made per'
feet.
The difference in rtoad conditions
'was noticeable from the time we
| crossed into North Carolina. We
went over the line at Barnes's bridge'
noted in local history as the scenej
of many holdups and murders com-!
; mit:ed by the Henry Berry Lowrie
gang in the late sixties and early
seventies. There is no change in
the topography or the character of
the soil. The country is level and
flat and the soil is a grayish yellow
sandy loam. Forty years ago air
this country was a swampy wilder-1
ness, covered with pine and other
timber. The ruling price was about
' 40 cents an acre. That was the situation
for more than fifty miles to
the east. But it is not that way now.
I Great drainage ditches have been
'cut through the country, the swamps
have disappeared, the road is dragged
every few days with split long
contrivances drawn by broad wheel
Ford automobiles and from the Marlboro
line to Lumberton, more than
thirty miles, it is the most thickly
populated rural district I have ever
seen. Many of the houses are large
I two story handsome structures of
eight or ten or more rooms, while
others are smaller and still others j
are mere shacks. Many Croatan In-'
dians are to be seen along the road
in varying stages of prosperity, andj
most of them at work, either about j
their homes or 011 their farms, or
traveling the roads in their wagons,!
taking produce to market or bring-1
ing back furniture and other articles
purchased from the towns of
Maxton and Lumberton.
1 The country through which we
passed, now so progressive and
prosperous, is the same that was
once the stamping ground of Henry
Berry Lowrie and his notorious, but (
nevertheless famous band of out- j
laws. Henry Berry Lowrie belonged
to the tribe of Croatan Indians that
is said to be descended from Sir
Walter Raleigh's lost Roanoke colony.
I can very well remember hearing
members of my family talking about
Henry Berry Lowrie at the dining
table and around the living room
fire when I was a child of 7 or 8
years. He and his gang were headliners
in the newspapers in those
days, and they cut as big a figure
throughout the whole country as did
Jesse James, Bill Dulin, Bob Dalton;
or any of the rest of them. Lowrie
robbed right and left, attacked court!
houses and jails, carried away the
safes of sheriffs and other officials
and killed people who got in their j
way. The State of North Carolina
offered a reward of $10,000 for the
body of Henry Berry Lowrie, dead
or alive, and although other members
of the gang were taken and executed,
no one was ever able to claim
the reward for the outlaw chief himself.
i Though as I have said, you see
lots of Indians while passing through.
that country at the rate of 35 or 40:
miles an hour, you see nothing sug-j
gestive of the old days. Maxtonj
about half way between Bennetts-,
ville and Lumberton, then a collection
of brothals, known as "Scuffle-'
town," and later as "Shoe Heel," is:
now quite a handsome little city. j
with brick stores, beautiful residences,
a college building that looks
as if it might have cost $50,000, or
more; paved streets, electric lights
and other modern public conveniences.
Here Henry Berry Lowrie
was king over a period of five or six
years, and Lumberton, the county
seat of Robeson and the victim of
numerous rams irum uie gang, is
now a city of apparently 5,000 or
6,000 people, with numerous private
mansions, some of which are as elegant
and as imposing as anything to
bo seen in Charlotte or Columbia.
The streets are paved, the sidewalks
concreted, and everything has the
appearance of affluence surrounded
by well satisfied sober Security.
The main object of our trip to
Lumberton was to make a call on
Rev. Baxter McLendon, who is conducting
a meeting there. Because
of the weather, the big tent the
evangelist uses at other places
would be uncomfortable, and for the
purposes of this meeting'he is using
a great brick warehouse, capable of
seating not less than five or six
thousand people. We dropped in on
an afternoon meeting when the congregation
was below 1,000; but the
people in " tendance said that the
crowds at 3 night meetings filled
the build to capacity, and that
the interest was very great.. There
were all kinds of people in attendance,
including the wealthiest and
most representative people of the
town and surrounding country as
well as many Croatans, among them
no doubt, descendants of the Lowries.
But getting back to Henry Berry
Lowrie. Senator McLaurin told me
why he was never captured. He killed
himself accidentally. It was on
February 20, 1872. The gang had
raided Lumberton the night before
and carried away the sheriff's safe,
containing $20,000 in cash. They
made their way down to the house
of Tom Lowrie, near Scuffletown,
and began fixing their firearms in
preparation for a pursuing party.
While Henry Berry was preparing
to draw a charge from his shotgun
the weapon slipped in his hand in
such a manner that the hamjner
stiuck against the sill of a corncrib.
The load was discharged and the
load took off a good part of Henry
Berry's head. The surviving members
of the gang buried the body under
the corncrib for the night and
later carried it off into the swamp
for a permanent burial. It was not
until years afterward that the facts
01 the occurrance were made known,
the members of the gang having
held their tongues in the meantime
to keep anybody from being able to
claim the $10,000 reward offered by
the state.
Along the whole fifty miles between
Bennettsville and Lumberton,
there is now only one suitable place
for a holdup, with a good chance for
a get-away. This is at that same
old Barnes's bridge. The bridge
crosses the Little Pee Dee river in
the midst of a dense swamp at the
only crossing place for a good many
miles in either direction. It is said
that the Lowrie gang used to kill
travelers at the bridge, weight their
bodies down with stones and throw
them into the river never to be seen
again.
Bennettsville has suffered terribly
from the influenxa. I did not get
the exact figures, but I was told that
there was not a family in town that
had not lost either a member or a
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close relative. And in passing
through the town of Tatum to the
cast of Bennettsville, where there
were a half dozen stores, I was told
that the proprietor of each and every
store had died of influenza.
On Christinas afternoon I walked
out with Senator McLaurin , to the
Bennettsville cemeteries, two of
jtheiu close together ?one known as
the old cemetery and the other as
the McCall cemetery. The latter
started as a kind of. land speculation
enterprise. There were many new
made graves in both cemeteries,
plenty of evidences of the ravages of
the influenza.
In a negro cemetery behind the
j "Old" cemetery, we ran across a
rather peculiar sight ? that of the
new made grave of an adult negro,
covered with bottles, pill boxes, bandages,
etc. Sticking at the head of the
grave was a castor oil bottle that had
originally held a quart. The neck
of the bottle had been stuck in the
grave and the remaining oil had saturated
the earth. There was a costly
hypodermic needle, "pneumonia
cure," different kinds of pills, and
various other things of like nature.
Inquiry developed that there had
been stories to the effect that the negro
wife had allowed the husband to
die of neglect and these token had
been placed on the grave as evidences
of the attention the deceased had
recieved.
Senator McLaurin is still a believer
in better prices for cotton. Ht
has the greater part of three crops
;on hand, and he is not inclined to
i sell until the price gets at least tc
(somewhere in tne neignoornooa oi
' I forty cents, which he believes will
be realized before the next crop is
gathered. At the same time, however,
he believes that the days of cot:
ton growing in Marlboro are fast
reaching their end. He thinks that
; the boll weevil will be getting in its
work to the windup soon, and beI
cause of that belief, he is doing all
i he can to induce the people to give
I more attention to tobacco raising,
i He and his son, Thomas McLaurin,
have recently secured qauntities of
tobacco seed that they are distributing
along with instructions as to
planting, cultivation and curing, etc.
and are trying to get the farmers to
go in for the raising of a million
pounds of tobacco so they can at
once have a home market. They
used a page advertisement in The
Pee Dee Advocate not long ago in
the promotion of their propaganda
and they are neglecting no opportunity
to push the w- 'k directly with
individuals, by means of argument
and persuasion.
Colds Cause Grip and Influenza
LAXATIVE BROMO QUININE Tablets remove the
! cause. There is only one "Bromo Quinine.*
EL W. GROVE'S signature on box. 30a
I (A 1^4 4^4 A^j A^4 1^1 ft^r,
! FERTIL
Manufactured by
PENDENT HOME I
: STOOD THE
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;ars lur an crups.
m the best of materi
?SEE?
L. FAR
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1LL.U1N, 3.
Telephone, he u
to see you
.'Dated at Dillon. S. C. Jan. 15, 191#. J
11 To the Defendants:?Wade Baker, 4
Ethel Baker, Albert Mack Baker, I
jWellena McPhaul, Sarah Blue Mo- 11
Phaul, Lillie Ruth Truluck and Lis;
ton Hoyt Truluck, minors.
! You vrill please take notice that
unless >'?u appear within twenty-days
from the service of this notice upon
you and ask for the appointment of
a d u i Leiuic yciouu iv i cyi cqcui j v?
as Guardian-Ad-Litem in the above
entitled cause that the undersigned >
| will make application l0 the court for
the appointment of such GuardianAd-Litem.
\
GIBSON & MULLER,
1 Plaintiff's Attorneys.
Tou, will please take notice that
1 the above entitled summons and notice,
together with complaint against
' you was field in the offfice of the
1 Clerk of Court for Dillon County on
the 20th day of January, 1919,
GIBSON & MULLER,
1 Attest: Plaintiff's Attorneys,
j JNO. C. BETHEA, Clerk,
j 1-21-St?336
SUMMONS FOll BELIEF.
State of North Carolina,
County of Dillon.
Court of Common Pleas.
'Elijah Tann, Tiny Tann, Hat- \
tie Tann and Cambus Tann,
Plaintiffs,
vs.
j H. A. Bethea, George Tann,
i Harrison Tann, Jno Tann and
i Sarah Tann,
? Defendants.
! To the defendants H. A. Bethea,
llGecyge Tann, Harrison Tann, John
; Tann and Sarah Tann.
You are hereby summoned and required
to answer the complaint in
this action, which is filed in the office
of the Clerk of Court of Dillon
> County, and to serve a copy of your
answer to the said complaint on the
subscriber at his office in Dillon,
1 South Carolina, within twenty days
after the service hereof, exclusive of
' the day of such service; and if yon
fail to answer the complaint within
' the time aforesaid, the plaintiff in
this action will apply to the Court
' for the relief demanded in this complaint.
JOE P. LANE, *
Plaintifff's Attorney.
Dillon, S. C., 10th, Jan. 191#.
' I hereby certify that the abova
1 foregoing is a true copy of the summons
in the above entitled matter
now on file in my office at Dillon,
South Carolina.
JNO. C. BETHEA,
Clerk of Court,
of Common Pleas for Dillon Co.
Jan. 21st, 191#.?l-2S-4t?343.
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