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SENTENCED TO DIE Editorial From The Literary Digest of April 15th. Twelve men, with grave faces, were met to decide an issue of life or death, j Mo burly criminal stood there to receive punishment for his crimes,? enly a litt'e chilu, begging for life. Her sin was hunger and nakedness. She trembled, and almost fell, as she stretched out thin, bare arms in supplication. "Hunger! Bread!" were the only; words she spoke. 'A long time passed, while those! men fought to escape the verdict they must render. But then the words came: "We have not found anyone who will give you bread, little girl. We i have told a great many people about you, bat they have given to so many ether boys and girls that they are i tired of giving. There is not enough i bread, now, to go around?no, not even a crust. We are very sorry, I dear little girl, but ?we must let i you die." 1 A 1 i *4 XT A I A /.n.sl fo/?t a cruci JC5V; iiv. xi W uvi *mwj multiplied thousands upon thousands j of times! If only one such pleading child were condemned to die because we are "tired of giving" it would be i enough to blanch he cheeks of every ] man ard woman who reads this page. ( ^ But upon many thousands of boys and ? girls the sentence of dea?h has just ; teen passed. i In Armenia a Christian race is be- < ing bottled out?while the worid looks j on. In Armenia peace did not come j when the rest of the world stopped ] fightin.Last year 140 villages were < destroyed; thousands of mothers and , grown daughters were violated and ? slain; fathers were herded into build ings aid burned; multitudes of or- ] phaned children were driven into the ) wilderntss to wander and die, unless j perchai .ee, they might be gathered < like lost lambs, into folds of safety i by the Near East Relief. Conditions ' ? are worse than at any time since the j armistice. Frantic appeals for more i food to save the children, for more ( f ' clothinjT to cover their naked bodies, . for more hospitals and orphanages to ? give them refuge come surging over t the cables to "kind, generous Amer- t ica," the hoped-for savior of Armenia. ^ And in the moment of this crisis, t when the question of life or death for ( unnumbered thousands of children ? must be answered, the tender charity ( of American mothers and fathers has ] begum to fail. Their aj swer to the v multitude of little orphans whose i cnly sin is hunger, and nakedness, | and imnieasurabie grief, has been,? i in December and January and Feb- j .ruary and March?not more money, l and more clothing, and more food, t less. And so cruel order has * gone forth from the offices of the t Near East Relief to reduce all ex- \ - fnronfir.fivo rv?r rPTlt / I JI^IIUAWVIVO vnviiv^ 1KV v Twenty-five children from every hundred now receiving care must be ^ turned away. Among the many thousai.ds whose wails of hunger, and sickness, and cold have not yet been * answered, not one can be satisfied. !?<? And Liow the cries of terror and dismay are reaching America: - Cablegram, via Paris: "Thousands cf deportees filling Near East thres% hold, receiving crust of bread, hoping for summer peace. Shall we push t them off our doorstep? Order of * twenty-five per cent, reduction necessitates closing March first all general relief." Cablegram, Constantinople: "Appalling increase of need for general relief throughout Anatolia Caucaus. Iieruction m already inadequate appropria tions cuts off multitudes who are hopeless without American aid." Cablegram, frcm American Wom'p en's Hospital, Erivan: We have eight hundred and fifty-two cases in the I 0 hospital, and children dying in all fcii^ffoMiers of Erivan. All day long we the wails and groans of lit? WT cM dren outside the office buildkl^^mgs hiping we can and will pick them j up. If the sun "bines a little while they quiet down; when it rains they begin again. One day when the rain LM?6ttrned to snow it was awful to listen ? to them. The note of terror that [ came into the general wail was plainly perceptible upstairs, and I had the I windows closed. They well know 1 what a night in the snow would mean ] I to then- We arc picking them up as 1 v fast as possible, but it is fatal to ? crowd them to such a point that we would lose even those already in orj phanage." Erivan?That one time prosperous | city of 'Armenia, not far from Mount I Ararat famous, in days of peace, for | the peach orchards and vegetable j gardens that surrounded it on every \ side. Walk through its streets today, i t " . and here is what you will see: "Chil- 1 f dren walking through the muddy gutters hunting for bits of orange peels, L apple cores, or anything that once reT sembled food; little boys and girls : sleeping in stables, with straw and [ manurt spread o\er their bodies to I keep tsem from freezing to death; or, in the early morning, deserted children lying in the doorways of the | buildings, wrappeu in old burlap bags,! some silent, perhaps already dead, i . t others sobbing unconsciously in their, sleep. They have been placed there ' during the night by their mothers who, unable to feed them any longer, have resorted to desertion as a final chance to save their children's lives. There is always a chance that they will be rescued by the Americans, and it is with this one hope that the mothers leave their little children, praying to God that they will be saved by the 'kind and generous Americans.'" Has that story of unutterable suffering, of passionate love and gratitude for what has been given, that trusting, prayerful appeal for rescue ot children whose lives now depend on us?has it all grown wearisome to us? Are wc tired of being "kind and generous?" Is there no longer anysacrificial tenderness for little children in our hearts? Is it time to be rid of the burden to stop our giving, and so, through the board of trustees of the Near East Relief, who must act as we dictate, to pronounce the sentence of death on these thousands of boys and girls who have believed, to '? "* fVlot- ?. ? WAlllH QflW LUC MOV lUVIlt^aV) V1IMV T? v nvwtw ?w. * them? Mothers and fathers of America, it is not true! You will not allow it! Your hearts h?.ve not turned to stone! What arc a few paltry miles of distance? They can not separate you from that famine-stricken land, where iead and dying children litter the city streets. They cannot shut out from your vision these hungcr-pinched faces and outstretched hands! You :an shut your windows, as they did, in very desperation, in the city of Erivan; but the wails and moans of little children, waiting in rain and snow, by Jay and night, to be "picked up" and clothed and fed, cannot be shut out of your heart. ctotinnc Kv flip r IVIIl x ai a?> uj? ovuviviii'i vj *..? magic science, our homes are being filled with song, and story and music [or the dance. Dut there are messages more wonderful than any con:rollod by the wizards of wireless, rhey are coming now from far away, ?nd the story they bring is burdened vith tears. The music is not for lancing, for those who make it can scacre stand upon their feet. The ong, swelled to a chorus of woe by housands of little voices that ought ;o be musical with laughter, is always the same: "Hunger! Bread!" \nd with the pleading cry of the chiliren, there comes a voice, sweet and solemn, saying "These are My little >nes; ye are My Shepherds; Feed My [^ambs." To catch these messages, every \merican heart that has thrilled at he laughter of a little child or throb>ed at its cry of pain, is the receivng instrument, and the messages are jroadcasted to us from the very hrone of Heaven. No mistake can be more tragic at ( his moment than for you to say, as fou read, "The call is not to me; I annot?I need not respond this time; , others will give, and the children will :ot have to die." There are no others?if you turn iway. The appeal has gone through;ut the length end breadth of this jreat land, and these "others" have leard it and some have given gladly; jut too many have said, "I need not espond this time " During the past 'our months not enough has been jiven to continue the core even of ;hose children already gathered into ;he hospitals and orphanages, while housands more are waiting to be | 'picked up" from the streets and :ountryside. There are no others?if you refuse, i Armenia is surrounded by bankrupt lations, or nations struggling to keep ;hemselves from bankruptcy. Europe Is full of suffering and need. A [Christian race will die if America Tails at this crisis. There are no others to love and saj-e for Armenia's little children?no >thers but yov. The vast majority are orphans. Father is dead; mother, too is dead; sister?if not dead is praying God for death; brother is dead; aunt and uncle, grandfather and grandmother?all dead, the home destroyed, and the lonely little girl o? tx>y has no one?but you. You are father and mother and sister and brother?the only one in whose heart the sad little waif can now find refuge. How splendidly you have given, perhaps, sometime in the past, and have brought health and laughter to some 5f Armenia's little sufferers! But for pvery one saved then, at least, one other was left without food, or shelter, or friends. And the child to whom you gave one meal a day last year cannot live now if that meal is stopped. A year ago the d/elivery of supplies for the Alexandropol orphanage was interrupted between November and May by transportation difficulties. Before April the children had to be placed on half rations, and by the first of May, on the very morning the supply train arrived, the last meager ration was distributed. During those sad weeks, when there was so little food at Alexandropol, more than two thousand children died. If you withhold your gift now, the boys and girls you fed last vear may be the very ones "sentenced to die." Revoke the en el sentence! Stop 9 the order to reduce all relief work twenty-five per cent! Thank God it is in your power at this Easter time to give life in place of death, health in place of sickness, laughter in place of tears. You can spftak the word of Resurrection, which will call back some little child from the dark valley of shadow and flood its new life with sunshine. Two things will fill your Easter Day with sweetest joy: the knowledge that Armenia's children did not wait for you, and trust in you, and appeal to you in vain; and the voice of the Risen Christ, the Lover of little children speaking to your soul, and saying, "Ye have done it unto Me. Ye have done it unto Me." So deeply are we, publishers of the County Record, stirred by the tragedy impending among the innocent children of Armenia, that we would feel a heavy share of responsibility for the needless of countless children, in that land, if we did not do what we could to save them. Send your contributions (and make it for as large amount as possible) to William M. Gibbes, Jr., No. 211 Liberty Bank, Columbia, S. C., or to this office, o The Cost of Mere Rats. The National Board of Underwriters, having under consideration the various sources of danger from conflagration, has been giving careful attention to the question of rats. It is a subject to which the average thoughtful citizen has. probably never given more than passing thought. Perhaps, after all, it is a question largely for the fire insurance people to consider; but out of it there have come some peculiar facts in regard to the cost of rats at large. An economic authority has discovered that in common with the cost of living the upkeep of our rats has scared to unprecedented heights. Ten years ago it was estimated that sim- ; ply in terms of food consumed and destroyed, it cost us at the rate of j $1.80 per person to support the rats ox the United States. We are told now that it has reached a trifle over $7 per person. In other words, more than $750,000,000 worth of foodstuffs , every year is consumed or destroyed J by these ever-present denizens of cellars and walls and garrets. This is regardless of the fact that medical ; science has demonstrated that the ' ubiquitous rodent is the carrier of ( certain serious diseases, among them , the terrible bubonic plague, and that ( the crossed wires and spontaneous combustion that are credited with J millions of dollars of fire loss are probably largely attributable to the reckless habits of this vermin. There are a good many things aside from ethics and art with which the tontemplative mind may concern itself. ? The County Record maintains one of the most complete and up-to-date printing offices i*i this section of the Slate, and solicits your patronage foi REGISTRATION NOTICE The office of the Supervisor of Registration will be open on the 1 st J Monday in each month for the pur- | pose of registering any person who is qualified as foUows: j who snau nave oeen a res mem of the State for two years, and of the county one year, and of the poll; j precinct in which the elector offers to vote four months before the day of elction, and shall have paid, six months before, any poll tax then due and payable, and who can both read and write any section to him by the Supervisors of Registration, or who can show that he owns, and has oaid all taxes collectible on during the present year, property in this State assessed at three hundred dollars or "re. R E. CL RKSON, Clerk of Board. NOTICE. The County Board of Commissioners of Williamsburg County will receive bids at their office in Kingstree. S. C., on Tuesday, September 6tn, and on the first Tuesday in each month thereafter, for groceries in bulk lots for the chain gang for one month at a time. S. J. SINGLETARY, County Supervisor Williamsburg Co. 8-18-21-tf. THE THRICE-A-WEEK EDITION OF THE NEW YORK WORLD IN 1922 AND 1923 Practically a Daily at the Price of a Weekly. No other Newsparer in the World Gives so Much at so Low a Price. The whole world is being made over and the United States is taking the lead in the work. This year, particularly, history will be made, and every American citizen will be deeply interested. No other newspaper is better equipped to give the news c? the world at the time it is newc than The New York World. Trtic Thrice-a-Wcek edition of The World is the greatest example of comprehensive journalism in America. Ic will keep you e.s thoroughly informed as a daily, which would cost five i or six times as much. It is a unique newspaper, published three times a week, for $1 a year. This is the regular subscription price and it pays , for 156 newspapers. We offer this uneaualled newspaper ' and The County Record together for one year for $2.35. The regular subscription price of the two papers is $250. 2-2 r. o. t. s. NOTICE OF ELECTION. Notice is hereby given that pursuant to an order of the County Board of Education of Williamsburg County, State of South Carolina, the undersigned, as Trustees of Marion Branch School District No. 45 in Williamsburg county and state afoiesaid, will hold and conduct an election at H. O. Pipkin's store in said school district, on Thursday the 15th day of June, 1922, for the purpose of submitting to the qualified voters and electors residing therein, the question of levying and collecting an annual tax of six (t> additional mills on the pronerty in said school district, which tax shail be used to supplement the taxes now collected in said school district for school purposes; that for the purpose of said election the polls will be opened at 8 o'clock in the forenoon and closed at 4 o'clock in the afternoon; that at said election only electors who return real or personal property for taxation and who exfc tax receipts and registration certificates as required in general elections shall be allowed to vote, and each elector favoring the proposed levy j shall cast a ballot containing the word j "YES" printed or written thereon, and | each elector opposed to said levy sha:; ?? 1AAnfoim'nry flin u'Arrl I Utdt a isaill/w wuvailliug n?c I "NO" written or printed thereon, and the undersigned trustees shall act as managers of said election, and the same will be held and conducted ir the manner prescribed by Section 17 of the Code of Laws of South Carolina, Volume 1, 1912. W. A. MARSHALL, H. 0. PIPKIN, R. D. McCONNELL, Trustees Marion Branch School District, No. 45. 6-1-2t NOTICE OF STOCKHOLDERS MEETING TO DISSOLVE CORPORATION. Notice is hereby given that a meeting of the Stockholders of the Peoples Mercantile Company, a corporation duly chartered under the laws of the State of South Carolina, will be held on Monday the 26th day of June, 1922, at twelve o'clock noon, in the office of the Peoples Mercantile Company, in the town of Greelyvile. County of Williamsburg, State of South Carolina, for the purpose of considering the liquidation and dissolution of the said Peoples Mercantile Company, the winding up of its affairs and the surrendering of its Charter, and for the adoption of such resolution as may be necessary to this end. J. W. OLIVER, President C. E. REGISTER, Secretary, Peoples Mercantile Co., Inc. Greelyville, S. C., May 23, 1922. _ 5-25-5t. NOTICE All claims against the county to . receive attention of the County Board i of Commissioners must be filed in the office, properly verified and itemized, ? not later than Saturday before the regular meeting on the first Tuesday in each month. S. J. SINGLETARY. ? County Supervisor Williamsburg Co. i M?-21-tf. J 1 Dividenc 9 X ft The Dividend Sci V y New York was increai ? that a further increas | 'i Improved HK jjji Your attention is corporated in new pol Hp ^ Claim may be ma y no probationary perio< X Payments begin ii ? tionary period. M lTAVrTTTtTT TT bfi nunlniii pctvu tfl disability. ffl Immediate waiver ffl anniversary. 60 Pull amount of ir ?j duction for disability jfl This new disabilil jj nMocf lpcral tpqptvp lif Pa of the insuring public S For terms on abc I B- v S KINGSTREE, 1 g-K<-T^-KW^--T??g ' ?xi6e BATTERIES "j Long Lasting Power fl Youareentitledtoabatterythatisnot only powerful when new, but that keeps its power through a long life of service. This means so much to vou in econ omy and convenience that it is worth some attention on your part. Call and let us show you why Exide construction gives you more power, longer life, and more care-free service. We repair all makes of batteries with a care that aims to live up to the name Exide. Battery and Electric Service Station 111E. Main St King&ree, S. C. ill ill f The Record carries the largest line of print- ng papers ever carried in Kingstree. Come in ind select your stationery. ( wm RECORD SPECIAL ADS. GET RESULTS Is Increased Again I ? . . ? mt-- >r?i i r _ !?_ n* leauie 01 me inuiucu jlhic axis uremic w. ux mi sed in 1921 and we are pleased to announce ?? e in our Dividends will be operative in 1922. B Disability Provision | invited to special features which may be in- S icies written by this company: 3 de AS SOON AS DISABILITY OCCURS? | nmediatelyon approval of claim?no proba- ^ lents, lifelong, conditioned on permanence of p m of future premiums?no waiting until next ffl isurance paid when insured dies, without de- E8 payments or for premiums waived. m y provision brings the service of America's 03 1 e insurance company still closer to the needs Eg I >v^Policies see ^ VCIMr I rTTlNi I * - \ SOUTH CAROLINA, tjj X