The Bamberg herald. (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, December 30, 1920, Image 1
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|2.00 Per Year in Advance BAMBERG, S. 0., THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1920* Established in 1891
Laney, Washh
Mayor c
The story of how women are running
a town comes from a newspaper
of Everett, Washington, and is sent
by Miss Katherine Crayton, who lives
at Everett, just across the Sound
from Langley, the town which has
achieved the distinction of being run
entirely bf women:
Doubtless that first time Adam got
home at 3 a. m. from the Eden club
and Eve told him in superlatives and
tears how she wished she'd never met
him and how she'd like to run things
in the Garden for awhile and there'd
be an end to such doings, doubtless
aeons ouck inert, auchu v> uuu-cicu.
*"What would a place become run by
Eve and a few others like her?"
Just ' after Caesar reminiscing
about Cleopatra, pondered some serene
moment in old Rome what Rome
would be if Cleopatra's gender instead
of his own did the bossing.
On down through history probably
not a human has lived that hasn't
sometimes stopped to make a guess.
After all those milleniums of questioning,
the interrogation is no more.
The question mark is gone.
We know.
L&ngley, the little Whidby island
town of 350 odd people just across the
Sound from Everett, cut the Gordian
knot. So far as we know, it's the first
town on the face of the earth in the
long sequence of ages since the slime
in some oozy tropic marsh first was
wiggled by the wiggling of the original
bit of protoplasm?the first one
that ever had an executive body of
women to run it.
What is Langley's answer to the
question?
Ask anybody over in l^angiey.
You'll "be surprised.
It's nothing like what you'd expect
after reading the literature of Carrie
Nation and its villainesses and its
saints and clinging vines.
How it Happened.
Hugh McLeod, attorney and notary
public and real estate dealer and
former city clerk, has a sense of humor.
Along in November last fall came
the caucus meeting when candidates
were to be named for city offices?the
mayor's chair, treasurer, and four
councilmen.
Not a soul showed up. Intact nobody
cared much about how the town
was run. Though council meetings
were supposed to be called every two
weeks, the men who had been serving
never met more than once a month or
every three months when there were
pleasanter things to do.
From May 6 to August, 1919, there
wasn't a single session, to be exact.
Clerk McLeod got an idea. He or
dered the ballots printed. They came.
Not a soul in town knew what was on
them until Dec. 1, the day before
voting. Then somebody heard.
He had picked the best known women
in town and he had named them
on one side of the ballot as the candidates
of the "Citizens' ticket" and
he had named on the other side of
the ballot under the heading, "Peoples
ticket" the best known men in
town. The news went around fast
and -it startled the little community.
Forty people voted in the choice
for mayor?twice as many as ever
took the trouble to get to the polls in
a Langley town election before.
The women's ticket lost in just two
places. Mr. Foster is in the bank.
That's why he won in the treasurership
contest. It's easier to pay at the
bank. Mrs. Peck is telephone central
for the whole village and environs?
that's said to be the reason the public
thought it wouldn't be wise to put
her in.
1? +T10 rtrtnnnil
1* IV? memuers cuiupusc wuuun
body at Langley. A woman mayor
and three "women counciimen" had
been put in by the election it will be
noticed. One woman councilman
went in and another held over.
Here shows the essential muleishness
of the male?or else his chivalrous
desire for once let womankind
run the whole works. Neither of
those two men would act. One would
not qualify and the other resigned.
That's how Mrs. Margaret McLeod
and Mrs. Grace Brown came to be
appointed councilwomen to act with
Mrs. English, Mrs. Wiley and Mrs.
Monson.
Here's What They've Done.
What has this women's council
done?
Here's a summary. Considering the
size of Langley we argue that it's notable;
that it's creditable; that it's a
pretty good proof that?well. Here
it is:
1. Pool halls and card tables are
!as Woman
ind Town Council
closed Sundays.
2. Gambling and punch boards
have moved out.
3. The moving picture show which
; was operated only on Sunday nights.
was ordered to choose another night
or quit.
4. Jitney and drays and dogs now
i must be licensed. The old council
remitted these licenses for a year.
5. The town is spruced up. Councilwomen
themselves have done
I everything from nailing down side|
walk boards to voting a cemetery
fund to keep the cemetery a place
! one "won't be sorry to go to when one
| dies. A clean-up week was a spring
! innocation.
There now?you are picturing a
mayor and council with reform methods
as serene as a jazz band.
You see a militant band of skinny-skirted,
thin, dispirited, birdcage
variety of creatures sternly scanning
the landscape for signs of an opportunity
to clean up something, each
militantly erect and disciplined in the
I things that make life juiceless and
| equivalent to ashes.
! But that's all wrong.
The mayor, Miss Helen B. Coe, is
i a quiet gentle-voiced, grey-haired
lady who has leisurely traveled
. through Europe several times, before
it was warscattered. She "was a kindergarten
teacher once. She has an
income which frees her from work
and she lives in Langley because she
likes it, likes the blue Sound stretching
out from the cliff on which her
pleasant cottage stands, has liked it
since she came a number of years
ago.
The majority of the six women have
i
grey in their hair. All are housekeepers.
Grown up or growing families
attest th^ ability and energy and
wholesome interests of most of them.
And here it should be said that not
a word is breathed in Langley about
any lack in their households of socks
unmended, bread baked black, iooa
half-cooked, buttons off. I myself
went through the - mayor's kitchen
and I saw on the table a berry pie
which certainly excelled in the crisp
flakey appeal of its crust and the
lacy edging of all the openings with
a perfection of red, tempting berry
juice.
Nobody Knows How.
Most of the women elected to the
council had no clearer idea what a
city council does than the average
ditch digger has about the deliberations
of the inner council of the
khedive of Egypt. One woman had
attended once or twice. Another was
wife of a former councilman. That
was the extent of their information.
At the last meeting of the council
of men, they were present, to see how
things went. Incidentally, so they relate,
.things went, including cash,
somewhat more pepfully than customary
for the council proceeded to
vote away about all the money there
was in the city treasury.
About this time, some worthy male
member of the community realizing
that the women were taking their
positions seriously decided that the
election had been a pleasant little
joke which had now lost its humor
and that the dominance of the superior
other half of the human race
must be duly asserted. So they appealed
to the district attorney about
the election. The only assuagement
the district attorney could give,
however, was that there was an'?TVm
Tir/~kmon
otner election coming,
council was safe for the present.
One of the first things the women
did was to order a road repair. The
public read in this?some of the public,
anyway?dire things for the future
of the city. Had not the men on
j the council considered that piece of
road?had not their sagacity, tempered
with a long experience in sundry
business, assured them that a
distinct loss to the community would
result from the repair of that road?
What did these women mean by ignoring
the wise policy of their predecessors.
And the women?some of them admitted?were
for a time quite worried.
But the thing drifted by with no
lamentable catastrophe to any of the
350 residents and a few have come
to regard it as distinctly an asset.
They do things with a dispatch?
these women. That is starting.
A casket shop on the street to the
dock showed its gruesome wares
through uncurtained and unpainted
windows to all passersby, blighting
the gaity o"f spirits and dimming
many a fine spring morning for imag
RIVER FLOWS UNDER CITV.
Made Peoria Biggest IMstilling (Center *
in Country.
Peoria. 111., Dec. 25.?Flowing at
some depth beneath the residence t
and business section of Peoria is a E
large subterranean river, the exist- a
ence of which made Peoria the big- t
gest whiskey distilling center in the? ^
country in pre-prohibition days. i c
i
The steram, which flows at right c
angles beneath the Illinois river at t
the edge of Peoria, is of unknown c
volume. More than a dozen wells, t
sunk through the bottom of the upper E
river by distilleries to tap the sub- ?
terranean body of water have failed t
to diminish the flow of the lower
stream. *
From these wells comes a water of t
unusual warmth and softness and it c
is this water that drew the largest v
distillers in the world to Peoria, as' 1
well as several smaller ones. Prac- j i
tically free from acid and alkali the' a
water required no special treatment t
before being fit for whiskey distillation
purposes. For this reason dis- t
tilleries were able to operate here t
at lower production cost than else- c
where and Peoria's "corn grind" for s
the liquor made here became the c
greatest in the country.
^ tm* 3
WHITE ROBED MEN PARADE.
C
Scatter Warnings to White and
Blacks in City.
Columbus, Ga., Dec. 25.?White- c
robed figures paraded some' of the
streets of the city tonight, scattering ^
warning circulars to the loafers and ^
undesirable class of citizens. Many
negroes fled in terror, seeking cover
in the dark sections of the city.
The notice read:
"Warding! Undesirable, both white A
t
and black, we are after you. We ^
know you?take warning?this loaf- ^
ing, thieving and prowling around t
has got to stop. Ku Klux." ^
Genuine Surprise*
g
Tittleton, the tragedician boasted
that nature was his only teacher.
"Please tell me," an admirer once
asked, "is that expression of aston- w
isment you assume in the second act
of your last play copied from nature,
too?"
> "It is," said Tittleton. "But I had
no end of trouble to get it. To secure
that expression I asked an inimate
friend to loan me $50. He refused.
That caused me no surprise. I tried
several other friends. They refused.
Still I was not surprised. Finally I
asked one who was willing to oblige
me, and as he handed me the sum I
studied in a glass the expression of
my own face. I saw surprise there,
but not astonishment. It was alloyed
with the suspicion that the money
might be counterfeit. I was in despair.
Where should I find genuine
astonishment?"
"Well," continued the admirer,
"where did you get it?"
"Then an idea struck me," the
tragedician said. "I resolved upon a T
desperate course. I returned the $50 i
to my friend the next day, and on his 1
astounded countenance I saw the ex- J
pression I sought."
Supply of box files just received i
at Herald Book Store. t - 1
inative folks. Again* and again, wo- (
men of Langley asked to have the s
windows curtained. Nothing happen- ]
ed. So they went down and soaped 2
the glass. The soap is gone but the ]
windows no more allow a sight of the \
long narrow boxes for the dead. i
It should be said that the town <
government does not absolutely ban
the men. A man is still allowed to
be the policeman of the town. A
woman has applied for the place
however, and was amply qualified
for the position which involves
merely impounding cows and supervising
some road work. But it was
considered policy to have a masculine
arm of the law. When an attorney
is needed the help of a man
from outside the city is called in to
give legal advice.
Everybody Seems Pleased.
At the end of the city clerk's records,
of last year and at the begin|
ning of this year's records of the
! women's is posted the verse:
"Running 'Em Ragged."
"It's quite the rule for gentlemen
To give their seats to ladies fair;
But gosh it's tough on mayors, when
The ladies want the mayor's chair."
It may be so. But the rest of
Langley seems now quite happy with
the present arrangement of things
and reports about the town say Miss
Coe and the others of her council
will be re-elected.
$50,000 LOSS IX COTTON FIRE.
*00 Bales and Part of Building Destroyed
at Orangeburg.
Orangeburg, Dec. 26.?Orange)urg's
second cotton fire within the
?ast fortnight last night destroyed
ibout 800 bales and part of the
>uilding of the Orangeburg Bonded
Varehouse Company here. The loss
if approximately $50,000, exclusive
if the building, is said to be covered
iv insurance. Several freight cars
>n a siding were also destroyed by
he flames, but the Standard Oil Comlany's
tanks and the plant of the
Southern Cotton Oil Company, near>yj
were saved.
Christmas fireworks is supposed to
lave been the cause of the fire, the
ilaze appearing to have its beginning
in a side of the warehouse which
cas not provided with firewalls. The
luilding had been left in an unfinshed
condition in the anticipation of
in addition being built and had only
>oard walls where the flames started.
The other recent cotton fire was at
he fair grounds where cotton held
>y the Orangeburg Marketing Assoiation
was consumed. This blaze is
upposed also to have been accidental
>rigin.
UDGE SCOTT KILLED IN WRECK.
Jreenville Officer's Car Overturns.
Wife and Brother Hurt.
Greenville, Dec. 26.?Walter M.
Icott, judge of probate for Greenille
county, was instantly killed; his
irother, W. Henry Scott, of Oklaloma,
was seriously injured and his
rife was slightly hurt, when the auomobile
in which the three were
iding, overturned this morning on
he Augusta road, ten miles below
he city. Judge Scott, who is one of
he county's best known citizens, was
Iriving the car. In rounding a curve,
he <car slid into a deep gully, overurning
on the three occupants and
rushing Judge Scots's skull.
The judge's brother and Mrs.
>cott are now in the City Hospital.
While Mrs. Scott's condition seems
o be safe, that of the brother is re
warded as critical.
ONE DEAD; FOUR HURT.
Ir. Creed, of Gloversville, Killed in
Automobile Collision.
Augusta, Dec. 26.?The fourteenrear-old
son of Anderson Creed, of
jloversville, S. C., was instantly
tilled; Mr. Creed, his wife and a Mrs.
^urvis and her two daughters, of
jloversville, S. C., were seriously if
lot fatally injured, this afternoon
lear Langley, when the automobile
n which they were riding v^as struck
)y an another car in which there
vere two men and a woman, beieved
to be residents of Augusta.
^ < ! ^
Well Matched.
"Even as a boy, Oliver Goforth
vas extremely volatile?never interested
in any particular thing very
ong at a time," related old Festus
Pester. "His relatives feared that
lis uneasy state of mind would cause
lim unhappiness in the future. And
t aid so for at the earliest oppor;unity
he married a girl who was
just as unstable and jigger as he was.
Dwing to their active natures and unsettled
dispositions they are both
*ept on the jump most of the time,
md their varied and assorted actions
irevent their married life from be
!ng in the least monotonous. Each
s continually anxious about the oth*r,
for fear he or she will kill himself
or herself, as the case may be,
oy his or her own silliness, and so
each is constantly concerned and soicitous
about everything the other
ioes.
"An especially shining example of
:he vivacity of the life they lead is
found in the preparation of their daiv
food. Early in the game the fair
Dride purchased a gigantic cookbook
ind began to cook her way through
t, beginning with the A's and proceeding
to cultivate onward down
;he alphabet* toward Izzard, taking
everything as it comes. This affords
ier pleasure, iui iuc uuvcuj picrents
the homely task from palling
>n her. She never attacks the same
lish twice, and there is always the
lelight of essaying something new.
\nd Oliver never cloyed, is religiousy
eating the fresh and unique proluctions
that are set before him, alvays
happy at being confronted with
something different. And the funny
)art is that they are both actually
growing fat on their foolishness."
<?? ^
Read The Herald, $2.00 per year.
i
W. A. Mason, Fc
of Hampton Co
1
COUPLE IS ASPHYXIATED.
Bride Arrives From Italy One Day; |
Dead the Next.
Newark, X. J., Dec. 24.?A small j
dark eyed girl who arrived here yes-!
terday from Naples, Italy, and her i
soldier here, Rocco. Bruillo. whose'
bride she became a few hours later j
were found dead from asphyxiation i
today in their snug Academy avenue;
apartment.
A month ago, in Italy, Carmalla re-1
ceived money for steamship fare and
with it a note:
"Come to me, my sweetheart, and
we will be married at Christmas
time."
After the simple wedding at Ellis
Island yesterday relatives of Bruillo
feasted the veteran and his bride. The
celebration lasted into the early hours
of this morning.
When the couple retired it is believed
Carmalla, who at home was
used to lamps, blew out the gas.
NO NEW TRIAL FOR GREEN.
Refusal by Georgia Court of Appeals
Is Made.
Atlanta, Dec. 23.?The Georgia
Court of Appeals today refused to
grant a new trial for William \B.
Green, former vice president of the
Fairburn Banking company, who was
convicted last spring of embezzlement
and sentenced to five years' imprisonment.
Green was vice president of the
bank when its building was burned
in the fall of 1919". He was in the
building at the time and later said
that robbers entered the bank, bound
and gagged him, looted the safe and
then set fire to the structure. An
audit of Green's books was said to'
place Green's shortage in the neighborhood
of $100,000.
Mrs. Katherine Bradstreet, who
was jointly indicted with Green on
the embezzlement charge, was found
not guilty when she was tried a few
weeks after Green's conviction.
LITTLE BOY KILLED.
Falls Beneath Wheels of Loaded
Wagon.
Walterboro, Dec. 26.?A very sad'
accident happened at Islandton Monday
afternoon in which little Henry
Willard Rentz, five-year-old son of
Mr. and Mrs. Wade H. Rentz, met his
death. His father had gone to Padgett's
mill for a load of wood, and
on approaching his home this little
fellow, with two other children, ran
to meet him. Mr. Rentz stopped and
helped them mount the wagon and
oc fv?c m 11 log qfartftd off little
JUOL CIO tub un?ivu
Henry fell beneath the wheels and
was instantly killed, the wheels running
over his head.
Goes Once Too Often.
Raleigh, N. C., Dec. 23.?A thief
had been sneaking into the barn at
night and stealing milk from a cow
owned by a Johnson county farmer.
The planter determined to put an end
to the culprit's depredations. A fewdays
ago the cow was transferred,
from her regular stall and a young
mule was substituted. One night
later, the farmer was aroused by a
terriffic racket in the vicinity of the
stable. He grabbed his shotgun and
ran to the barnyard, but the thief had
escaped, leaving a battered milk pail,
a small stool and a hat in the mule's
stall. The visits of the intruders
have ceased.
Some Santa Claus, This.
Tacoma, Dec. 24.?Santa Claus
came a day early to the home of
Mrs. Ray D. Goodale, in Puyallup, ana
left a half million dollars in her
Stockings for herself and baby son.
The gift came in the form of news
that the woman and baby have inherited
the estate of Ray Merwin, a
New York stock broker, who recently
died.
Liquor Still in Church.
Hanford, Wash., Dec. 24.?Fire
which broke out in a church of Hanford
yesterday was declared by deputy
sheriff today to have been caused
by an overheated whiskey still which
was in full operation in the basement.
The basement was rented by J. A.
Brooks, a butcher, for which a warrant
had been issued on a charge of
operating a still. The church was
not badly damaged by the fire.
)rmer Treasurer
unty, Found Short
ACCORDING TO ALLEGATIONS
MADE BY GRAND JURY.
' . * Vs
SAYS BOND NOT RENEWED.
Presentment States Affairs of County
Not Being Conducted Accoitling
to Law.
Columbia, Dec. 22.?W. A. Mason,
former treasurer of Hampton county,
is alleged to* have been short in his
accounts to an amount aggregating
$17,801.91, according to a verified
copy of the presentment of the Hampton
county grand jury, made December
20. 1920, and filed with Governor
Cooper today. The Attorney General
io ronnoato^ t n hncrin opfinn in tha
iw i V'jjUVWV,VU bU WVQAti UVVAVU AM VMW
name of the State to recover the
amount from the bondsmen of Mr.
Mason.
According to the presentment, and
from other sources, it has been found
that no record has been brought to
light of the renewal of the former
treasurer's bond when he was recomv
'.'57^3
missioned February 15, 1915, for a
term of four vears. Neither the office
* . j
of the Secretary of State, then under
the administration of the former
head of the department, R. M. McCown,
of Florence, nor that of the
State Treasurer, where the bonds of
state officials are to be filed, have any
record of the bond being issued. W.
A. Mason was first appointed during
the Blease administration on Febru- ^
ary 20, 1913, took out his bond and
was commissioned March 9, 1913. He
was renominated in 1914 and again
appointed on February 9, 1915. He
resigned and R. E. Causey was appointed
by Governor Cooper to sue
1 ? XT OA 1 A O A nn/1
ueea mm uu i-sovciiiuci emu.
Mr. Causey was commissioned on the
9th of this month.
Text of Presentment.
The following is the presentment:
"At a special session of the grand
jury for Hampton county, convened
by the foreman for the purpose of
looking into the affairs of the county
on December 20, 1920, the grand jury
entered into consideration of the report
of the 'auditors, who conducted
an investigation at our suggestion,
through the cooperation of our Senator.
"We find a shortage reported in
the office of W. A. Mason, as county
treasurer, amounting to $17,801.91.
We direct that the clerk of court immediately
upon the filing of this presentment,
certify to a copy of this
presentment and forward to the attorney
general to whom we take $ie 1
liberty of stating that suit should be
authorized on the bond of the treas- -v
urer. It is stated that said W. A.
Mason, as county treasurer, had not
given Dona since ms aypuimineui iuui
.
years ago and that suit will have to
I be instituted against the bondsmen
! for a period before that date. If any
I state officer has been negligent in
not requiring such bond we suggest
and recommend that the bond of such
state officer be sued in the event of
loss because of this failure to perform
his duty. Wp direct that the
county attorney for Hampton county
*,
be forwarded a copy of this presentment
and that he be requested to get
permission from the attorney general *
and the solicitor to commence thfc
action in the name of the state for
the recovery of the funds of the county
and the state. We direct the
supervisor and county treasurer to *
see that such steps are taken as may
be necessary to secure the shortage.
Other Matters Up.
"As to the other matters investigated
by the grand jury we state
that we are apprised of the fact that
the county tax books have not been
opened until December 14. This con>
dition prevailed two years ago, that
is, 1918. The attention of the auditor
was called to this matter last
summer. Explanations wrere made.
The schools of the county and other
county works were seriously in danger
of being closed or stopped because
of this failure to perform the plain
duty of making up the tax books as
required by law. We direct the clerk
of court to forward a copy of this
presentment, immediately upon its
being filed, to the governor, to whom
we take the liberty of suggesting that
the county auditor of the county
should be required to perform his
duties even to the extent of requiring
him to show cause why he should not
be removed from office in the event
he has failed. The county attorney
of the county should look into this
(Continued on page 6, column 6.)
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